Questions for Atheists - Why Have So Many of History’s Greatest Thinkers Been Believers?
5The implication of the question is fairly clear - these are history's greatest thinkers and they believe in God. Maybe you should too. However, that's not how evidence works. It's an appeal to authority.
There are a few possible answers to the question, and the idea of a god actually existing would explain it in certain circumstances.
However, there are quite a few other options of which to take stock as well.
Script Basis (See Below for Sources)
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Why have so many of history’s greatest thinkers been believers?
1. A god might exist, and there might be evidence that warrants belief in its existence.
2. Belief in gods might be a side-effect of our psychological and neurological development:
- a parental figure that fills the need for security and forgiveness after childhood
- transference of strong attachments to religious deities and their messengers
- based on experience of anticipating how people will behave in given circumstances, the projection of that ability to imagine how a being would react given how its past actions are described in scriptures
- our ability to anthropomorphise non-human things in the world and see them in a human-like way, which makes it easier to connect with them
- social and ritual elements that result in increased levels of serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin, that provide pleasure or make us feel good or even euphoric, create a desire to repeat the experience, and strengthen social bonds
- metaphorical speech where the "believer" is referring to nature as god
- the social cost of putting one's head over the parapet in an age where religious authorities could be violent, cruel, or pitiless, and one's livelihood, social connections, and perhaps life were at risk
- many great thinkers being believers doesn't mean god therefore exists, and there are counter-examples of great thinkers who did not believe in a god, going back to at least Xenophanes of Colophon, not to mention monotheism is a relatively novel belief in the timescale of human existence. More have not believed in God than have in the grand scheme of things.
Questions
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https://whygodreallyexists.com/archives/questions-for-atheists
Background Reading and Script Basis
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"Why are people religious? A cognitive perspective," Nick Perham, The Conversation, Published: December 18, 2018
https://theconversation.com/why-are-people-religious-a-cognitive-perspective-108647
"Disbelieve it or not, ancient history suggests that atheism is as natural to humans as religion," Research, 16 February 2016, University of Cambridge Online
https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/disbelieve-it-or-not-ancient-history-suggests-that-atheism-is-as-natural-to-humans-as-religion
Media Sources and Image Credits
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"An Atheist Meets God," by Edward Current
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urlTBBKTO68
"Portrait of Pythagoras"
"Brain Mind Relation" by Ajai R Singh
Mens Sana Monograms
"Parenting Cliparts 202704"
Clipart Library
"Knot" by Richard Drury
Getty Images
"Imagining"
Leon Bambrick
"Le Voyage Dans La Lune" 1902
Everett Collection
"Ritual" by Frank Mckenna
Unsplash
"God as a metaphor" undisclosed online meme generator
"Inquisition"
"Portrait of Xenophanes of Colophon"