Abid wrote:
OK How does your rationale explain why there are so few atheists in the world, and that so many people embrace religion all the time?
First we have to define atheist. I understand it to mean without the necessity to believe in a god, like a-political or asymmetric means without political afilliation or without symmetry. But if a theist is someone who believes in god, then we need a definition of god, and it seems there are as many definitions of that small word as there are minds on planet earth thinking about it. I've never actually described myself as an atheist, but I have great difficulty describing what the word God means. The nearest I can get is approaching that sense of awe and wonder when I contemplate the beauty of nature and the magisty of the cosmos, to realise that we are literally part of the universe, the atoms that make up our bodies are stardust and will ultimately return to the stars.
So to answer your questions
I think religious belief developed as early man developed. As he moved from hunter-gatherer to primitive farmer two things happened. First he had a bit more time to sit around and think. Second he became more aware of just how vulnerable he was to natural forces over which he had absolutely no control. Crops need water. No rain = starvation. Therefore as something must cause the rain, he defined a rain god who made it rain on the fields at the right time. Clearly if it didnt, the rain god is upset about something. So having a rain god is quite useful. Not only does it explain why it rains, but it presents an opportunity, by keeping Her happy and of warding off drought and starvation. Just how to keep Her happy is the religious ritual. There are thousands of rain gods around the world. And hundreds of Gods and goddesses responsible for just about every feature of life. They were invented by early man as the only way he could of explaining the inexplicable. Parents explain to children, and children, because they MUST to survive, believe. So it goes on. Religious belief becomes a self propagating cultural meme with a character and life of its own. "Give me a child until he is seven years old, and I will give you the man". Very few people manage to escape from the religious indoctrination they received as a child. And those few that did, who stood up for their right to think freely often found life could be both uncomfortable, and brief.
It was only with the Renaissance and the development of early scientific instruments and scientific thought that the religious mind set was seriously challenged. Even so there was great danger in speaking out too openly. The battle goes on. Think how Galileo was persecuted. Think how Darwin hesitated for years before publishing his great discovery.
Bertrand Russell wrote:The immense majority of intellectually eminent men disbelieve in Christian religion, but they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes
. Russell of course was speaking in a specifically Christian context, however I believe the same quiet scepticism exists within Islam...where in fact it has to be extremely quiet, think of Salman Rushdie.
So I have spent far too long answering why there are so few "atheists". I'll answer your other questions later.
