physeter

I think they’re all authoritarian in various ways.  Religion forms a moral domain – with a goal (worshipping God, enlightenment) and methods of achieving it (religious observance).  Morality has a light and a dark side, like the moon.  Authoritarianism is the dark, harsh, punishing side of morality and hence, religion.

Islam is currently the mo…[Read more]

Simon says,

Muslim people don’t lose their wits, or common intelligence, just because their religion is oppressive. They have to know how to find how to live some kind of life in that stifling environment. That takes intelligence.

Where’s the reproductive selection pressure, in this situation, against intelligence?

WISH I KNEW HOW TO DO THA…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Generations upon generations of mindless devotion, fear, and authoritarian control resulting in retardation of normal curiosity and intellectual exploration might be inheritable in terms of intelligence? It would certainly aid the mind virus of Islam to dumb down its hosts. IDK

Muslim people don’t lose their wits, or common…[Read more]

Why does Islam seem so authoritarian compared with other religions?  Is it really more authoritarian than some of the Christians?

I have been reading a bit and finding out about Hinduism.  They encourage free-thinking and free enquiry – within a rigid framework of rituals connected with ideas of sacredness and purity, and “feudal ethics” (the c…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Adults, one hopes, cooperate for the good of a collective (family, community, employer, club, whatever). That comes over time with life experience and maturity.

We also coooperate just to get things done that we need to achieve and benefits we need to gain.  We also cooperate because socially we enjoy it – a benefit gained through…[Read more]

Religion impacts lives in a number of unfortunate ways.

I have been listening to a slew of apostates of Islam tell their stories and not only is antisemitism more virulent (ubiquitous too) than i realized but the degree of control over every aspect of life is shocking. It is such a blatant and horrific cult. One of the many revelations to me is…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Kids are narcissists.

I wasn’t saying they’re fantastic.  They are monsters compared with adults.  But they seem to be born with innate cooperation skills that aren’t taught.

Compared with a chimpanzee, a 3-year old child is a great team player.

Simon Paynton wrote:
’m not a parent.  According to laboratory experiments, they develop the skills by around the age of 3.  I should have been more precise.  The point is they don’t need to be taught, they do things like respect commitments and help those in need (much of the time) automatically.  That in turn looks like the best coopera…

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Jake,

I would say for sure that how a religion regards incestuous relationships, hereditary Monarchy, and heterosexual relationships across religious lines would have an affect on the genetics of the adhersnts.

Likewise, if a religion–such as Christian Identity, original Mormonism, Black Hebrew Israelites, The Nation of Islam, or Ancestral…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:
Yes, but can you think of any biological characteristic including the behavior of living things that does not ultimately stem from our genetic composition?

Well, you could say that all behaviour is biological, because it’s carried out by human beings with biological bodies. I think it’s more relevant to loo…

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_Robert_ wrote:
Yes, but can you think of any biological characteristic including the behavior of living things that does not ultimately stem from our genetic composition?

Well, you could say that all behaviour is biological, because it’s carried out by human beings with biological bodies.  I think it’s more relevant to look at the reasons for…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:
Unfortunately, even though many antivaxers might erase themselves during a pandemic, the ties to a representative genotype are so complicated that the behavior will not become a phenotype in the normal sense.

I think it’s a case of culturally-induced suicide, rather than maladaptive genes.

Yes, but can you t…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Unfortunately, even though many antivaxers might erase themselves during a pandemic, the ties to a representative genotype are so complicated that the behavior will not become a phenotype in the normal sense.

I think it’s a case of culturally-induced suicide, rather than maladaptive genes.

Unseen wrote:
Cooperation has to be taught through positive and negative reinforcement.

Are you actually a parent, Simon?

I’m not a parent.  According to laboratory experiments, they develop the skills by around the age of 3.  I should have been more precise.  The point is they don’t need to be taught, they do things like respect commitments an…[Read more]

Unfortunately, even though many antivaxers might erase themselves during a pandemic, the ties to a representative genotype are so complicated that the behavior will not become a phenotype in the normal sense.

I was being facetious with that Vegas over under. Silly even.

Phew, glad to know that because They’re gonna put it down, on the Vegas strip

Simon Paynton wrote:
There are all kinds of people who shouldn’t be here if Mother Nature had anything to do with it. For humans, it’s not so much survival of the fittest, it’s the survival of the most cooperative. That’s why young children are born knowing how to cooperate.

If they are “born knowing how to cooperate,” why don’t they. Childre…[Read more]

Enco,

I was being facetious with that Vegas over under. Silly even.

Was quite serious about the possibility that Islam which dictates EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF LIFE causes inherited stupidity. There are severe pentalties and debilitating anxiety suffered by its adherents/victims for thinking or questioning. And women ain’t typically doing the…[Read more]

Jake,

Is it a stretch or bigotry to wonder whether century after century of Islam has caused a dumbing of the general population? If animals living underground or in caves generation after generation have in many cases lost their eyesight does generation after generation of Islamic life make epigentic changes both through the failure to…

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Robert,

Yes…Humans are no longer subject to the normal genetic screening processes. In many cases the least-fittest humans can propagate as much as anyone. It seems the struggle is changing to the situation where we somehow force our environment to adapt to us. We will fail, of course. Elon Musk can’t even build a decent electric truck, let alo…

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