[jakell]

One problem with investing in science the ultimate ability to answer every question is that we do not know what questions may arise in the future.

Besides. You are already chasing a wild hare. There is no mystery as to why people believe in God or Gods. If we three put our minds together we could write all of them on a 3 X 5 card in about 5 minutes with some considerable degree of certainty.

I am amused at people who chase the "God gene". It is like chasing the "petting cats gene". We do it because it gives us pleasure. Some do not share this pleasure. Some get scratched. But for most people petting cats (or dogs) gives us pleasure. It, in our opinion, enhances our lives. It does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. Dogs smell, cats scratch, their food is expensive and we no longer need to guard our sheep or de-mouse our houses. I am sure someday that some scientist will post a wildly entertaining piece of research about how petting cats excites some center in our brain releasing a hormone called felinitol and thereby rendering us unlikely to resist cat petting.

But you see why this is a wild hare. Y'all are looking for science to save you from the one pro-God argument that can't argue against. It is that believing in God give enough of us comfort, solace and pleasure that we want to. And we encourage each succeeding generation to experience it too. None of that for a moment has a thing to do with whether God in some form exists.

Feel free to have fun imagining some scientist in some Olympian laboratory peering at an EEG and shouting, that he/she had found "God". Indeed the "god gene" bullshit has already happened. Personally I wish they would give the research money to some Catholic research hospital like St. Judes, which, in the name of the God in whom you do not believe, more thoughtful scientists are trying to cure cancer and heal ill little children.

We do seem to have a tendency towards belief/faith though, whether it is supernatural beings or just something beyond our ken that we can nevertheless trust to be consistent. This latter shows itself in our childhood and is going to guarantee our survival far more than distrust and cynicism.

I agree with you that it pretty much a waste of time looking for a specific 'God gene' but genetic research is going to go its own way anyway despite what we may think and may identify those that give us a tendency towards belief/faith, something that seems to be prevalent in some more than others.

[Besoeker]

We do seem to have a tendency towards belief/faith though, whether it is supernatural beings or just something beyond our ken that we can nevertheless trust to be consistent. This latter shows itself in our childhood and is going to guarantee our survival far more than distrust and cynicism.

But atheism, at least in my case, isn't about distrust and cynicism. It's simply the absence of a belief in any supernatural entity.

I've said this before but I think it bears repeating. We are all born knowing nothing except feeding and defecating and even that latter function is uncontrolled. One logical conclusion is that we are all born with an absence of a belief in any supernatural entity. That is, as atheists. It thus follows that subsequently espousing any specific religion or god is something that is taught i.e man-made.

is my atheism a bad thing? I don't preach aherence to it, or hatred of anything, I don't pillage, plunder or rape.
OK, I will bop the odd old lady over the head and steal her gin money............