holy week

[popeye]

"how do we sort out the believers from the players then" Why do you think we have to do that? Whether someone genuinely believes in an imaginary friend or only claims to believe in an imaginary friend makes no difference to me. Either way, they're delusional and best avoided. If you mean how does a genuine believer tell whether someone else is a genuine believer or not? Again, what difference does it really make whether they're giving their life savings to a madman or a conman?

The root cause of belief is a desire to understand the inconceivably complex. "The universe is so big how could it have possibly come about?" "How much do you know about astrophysics?" "Um...I'm a Leo..." "Right. Yeah. Well, the universe was knocked up as a sort of DIY project about 6000 years ago by an old guy who was lonely and we're sort of like his pets." "Ah, yeah, my mother has a rabbit--it's all she's got now that dads dead. Thanks."

A belief gene? Not specifically. All humans want to understand things. All humans are capable of creative thought, and of comparing ideas. But humans are all different. Different hair colour, different IQ, different weights, different propensities to seek closure or to be able to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty.

Hear, hear, good reply to a complex argument Touchstone, you're a thinking jester and that's a good combination! Cheers!