Religion Will Never Die Because Humans Are Programmed To Be Superstititous

Religion will never die because the human brain is hard-wired to believe in magic, according to Dr Bruce Hood, of the University of Bristol. He was speaking at the British Association’s annual festival in Norwich, which has already been criticised in Newsline for its emphasis this year on new age and religious matters at the expense of proper science.

Prof Hood challenged the assumption that belief in the supernatural was spread by religions in gullible minds. “Rather, religions may simply capitalise on a natural bias to assume the existence of supernatural forces,” he said. “It is pointless trying to get people to abandon their belief systems because they operate at such a fundamental level that no amount of rational evidence or counter evidence is going to be taken on board to get people to abandon these ideas.”

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See this for an example of superstition bordering on insanity

Ed writes: Are we really slaves to our evolutionary attachment to magic and superstition? Please send your comments to tas@secularism.org.uk.