Posted: Apr 4, 08 1:43pm
How do we acquire strongly held beliefs? Why do people hang on to beliefs even under extraordinary pressures and overwhelming evidence to the contrary?
My personal opinion:
I agree with Dawkins that acceptance of belief is a biological survival factor. If a child doesn't believe that a fire will burn them, or a river will drown them, or that they can fall to their death off a cliff, then the child might not survive long enough to learn these things. Some things can be learned by believing, or the hard way, and the hard way is most unforgiving.
Unlike cliffs, rivers, and fires, the existence of God isn't something that you can test. There is no way for a child to ever know that the story they've been told isn't real. Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are found out easily. Gods, ghosts, demons, spirits, and other supernatural forces are beyond our grasp.
Parents continue to nurture these beliefs, and children are indoctrinated into an organized belief system supported by classes, textbooks, teachers, and advisors. The Catholic church runs what is probably the largest school system on earth. Fine mechanisms exist to handle common questions that all children have. One of the most effective is shock and disapproval. Questions can lead to ostracism, and ostracism is heavy club to wield against a child. The Madras system in Pakistan is a more dangerous example of how children are brainwashed into believing superstitions.
Are there others?
