Here is a good article that sums up my perspective on Christianity, especially the bolded paragraph. There is no question n my mind that evolution has provided a sort of boobytrap in that it causes us to impute intentionality to all sorts of things that don’t necessarily have it, but that’s a separate issue from whether there is a higher consciousness to the universe.
The argument for literal Christianity is that the resurrection of Jesus represents a unique intervention from that higher power that provides believers with a “path dependent” connection with God. ”I am the Way and the Truth and the Light.”
Any theologically sound Christian will tell you that without a literal resurrection, there is no Christianity. The pro is that there is an abundant historical record of Jesus’s life and the events following his death, the con is that we’ll never see the stone roll away from the tomb. I, for one, believe that “he is risen.”
The researchers found that religious beliefs “light up” the areas of our brain which have evolved most recently, such as those involved in imagination, memory and “theory of mind” – the recognition that other people and living things can have their own thoughts and intentions.
“They don’t tell us about the existence of a higher order power like God,” says Grafman. “They only address how the mind and brain work in tandem to allow us to have belief systems that guide our everyday actions.”
via ‘Theory of mind’ could help explain belief in God – life – 09 March 2009 – New Scientist.
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