Re: Darwin's God

[ravi <ravi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
> Age may have an impact, but will it be any different if you take a
> sample out of Americans older than college students who say they have
> "no religion" according to surveys?  People can be very superstitious
> without belonging to any religion.
>

I agree w.r.t "no religion". People use that in many different ways ("I
haven't been to church lately", "I do not practice anything", "I believe
in Wiccan spirituality", etc). But this is not to be equated with
atheism, yes? Atran poses this question: "Why do we cross our fingers
during turbulence, even the most atheistic among us?". But this is
wrong. I claim that the most atheistic among us do not cross our
fingers. In fact, even this is a poorly designed test. There are various
cheerful personalities (such as my own mother, who is very religious)
who smile through turbulence because it doesn't worry them much.

        --ravi