Religion/ belief in God is largely genetic & spiritual feelings are actually neural

Wow! I see you aren't a big Gandhi fan, no matter. I like his views, and as for reason... who cares? If you have much greater potential for reason than me, I could not care less. To me, love potential is more critical. Besides, I don't agree with your choice of different potential meanings. I feel we are all equal in our potential, though different and each unique, none is better than another.
'The bible is as much a book of religion with me as the Gita and the Koran.' Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
What I see is a man who gives different religions equal validity, which I feel is fair.
He was able to take back the nation of India from the British without violence. I am awed by that achievement. Is his humility, modesty, and contentedness not admirable?
Is passive resistance not the best way to change society? It is hard to criticize.
'An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.' Gandhi
'I think it would be a good idea.' That was Gandhi's reply when asked what he thought about western civilization. That is good stuff, funny and yet thought provoking.
If genetics is your answer to spirituality, fine, but it does not explain anything as yet. Heck, all the world's best, smartest, most respected scientists can't even figure out Copperfield and Angel's illusions yet.

 

To me, love is reason.

Being different, I don't see how our potential for anything could not differ.

I am open to reason


About Gandhi, I see you have a deep respect for him. He seems a reasonable sort of a man. I'm sure he wouldn't mind me passively resisting some of his less rigorous thoughts that have become quotes

 

Replace microwave with Hipforums.

But first, for the sake of argument, think of the internet as a model of a neural network. This network is made up of billions of connections between millions of computers which, with reasonable accuracy, constantly processes an enormous amount of information provided by a wide variety of sources. Like brain cells, individual computers have a life cycle within the network, but the network itself exists within the relationships between all of the computers. In every reasonable way one could argue, this network actually, physically exists in the real world.

Now, the strictly materialist and/or Atheist view seems to be that only the physical components of this network can be said to actually "exist." Even the information is reduceable to electrical pulses. A series of ones and zeroes.

Now, the question is: Does this pattern of ones and zeroes have its own reality? Does the pattern, itself, "exist?" Does meaning, itself, exist?

I think so.

If a pattern has its own existence, then there is a difference of meaning between one pattern and another. The pattern of ones and zeroes on a CD that correspond to your favorite song, for example, is not the same pattern as the binary code for pi which is not the same as the computer code for HipForums. They have entirely different, non-interchangable meanings. They are very different forms of information.

Now, when you look at this computer screen, what you are seeing is an arrangement of information. There are as many ways to "see" this information as there are seers. One could see information telling each pixel which color(s) to diplay, one could see information describing the size, location, color and font of the words displayed, one could see the intellectual intent and inclination of those who write on these forums, one could see the historical significance of a medium in which you can write something that may be instantly read by someone else on the other side of the planet. All of this information, and more, I am sure, exists. Whether you focus on one meaning or another, or on all of it or on none of it, all of this meaning is there to see.

There seems to be some worry that it is delusional to see things (like DirtyVibe's hypothetical microwave, for example) that are not there. But an inability or an unwillingness to see things that ARE there, isn't that just as erroneous a reading of reality?

Maybe God is just an Ideal that humans have been figuring out for the past five thousand years or so, or, maybe that Ideal is based on something undefinable that many (millions of people over thousands of years) have actually experienced.

Who knows?

Peace and Love

 

As dejava has affirmed this is the case.

Occam has encountered some really stupid people.
But is that a product of nature or nurture.?

Thats life.

Occam

 

The genes found so far that predispose towards a belief in God don't do so for the belief in God only but in beliefs in all kinds of rediculous supernatural fairy tales: magic, psychics, aliens, etc. This is because the gene predisposes one towards the kind of thought that allows one to believe in imaginary things without evidence: faith.

 

Originally Posted by BlackGuardXIII
I did not understand whether your point was that all of us are different as in some have greater and some lesser potential

I have a different viewpoint of humanity, from what I am interpreting. I may have a high IQ, but potential is not limited to one quality. What I meant is that someone who is 'dumb as a stump', for example, might be extremely compassionate and considerate of others feelings. Intuition is not tied to intellect, and many a genius has killed themselves by making an error that a dimwitted, uneducated labourer would never make. Then there are the mystics, who see things others find beyond belief, yet they may be illiterate. An Australian Aborigine elder would score miserably on a standard IQ test, yet his wisdom and skill in his areas of expertise is vast. My point is that everyone has the same potential in general, though specific abilities are uniquely individual.
No?
Re: nature/nurture. The decades of case study, labwork, experimentation, and observation by psycologists of all types recently postulated that there appears to be about a 50/50 split. We are half what we live, and half what we were born with. I could have guessed that. The general feeling I get from their conclusion is they are probably pretty close to the reality. It is just too bad that practically anyone who thought about it for a minute would likely have reached the same one.