Why has religion retained its appeal?

[Cyclone]

Well, if you're purporting to read his mind then I'm not sure of the point of the discussion at all.

[SnailyBoy]

Have you considered unforeseen outside influences? God forbid (pardon the expression). Is it also reasonable to expect that you wont be affected by an unforeseen outside influence tomorrow based on the previous 18250 times you've experienced?

 

It's an unreasonable expectation that I'll meet an unforeseen end tomorrow.

 

That's why people tend to be shocked when something unforeseen happens to someone else.

[danot]

Well, if you're purporting to read his mind then I'm not sure of the point of the discussion at all.

 

Not at all. We've been discussing the likelihood of Snailboy being alive tomorrow.

 

From a medical point of view, his chances are looking good, but we're not discussing his health are we? we're discussing the likelihood of him being alive tomorrow.

 

The exact time and nature of his death is known, obviously, we all know that. It could be imminent, it might be years away, it's impossible to predict. Yet, in spite of this, he feels reasonably confident saying he expects to wake up in the morning. I'm asking- 'why'?

Perhaps he envisages himself as an old man. Perhaps he's not considering the unfortunate possibility of an untimely death, perhaps he doesn't want to consider it? I don't know since he hasn't explained his reason yet.

[Cyclone]

You're somehow going to dismiss "health" as being relevant to the likelihood of death?

 

Reasonably confident is a perfectly logical position to take, because health and the chance of an accidental death are both evidence to assess when predicting the chance of living to tomorrow or not.

[danot]

It's an unreasonable expectation that I'll meet an unforeseen end tomorrow.

 

That's why people tend to be shocked when something unforeseen happens to someone else.

 

There's nothing unreasonable about it. Death is death. Sure, the precise nature of it can trouble us at times, but what can you do?

 

---------- Post added 29-07-2018 at 12:24 ----------

 

You're somehow going to dismiss "health" as being relevant to the likelihood of death?

 

Reasonably confident is a perfectly logical position to take, because health and the chance of an accidental death are both evidence to assess when predicting the chance of living to tomorrow or not.

I've not dismissed his health, I'm just pointing out that there are other factors to consider besides age and health.

[SnailyBoy]

There's nothing unreasonable about it. Death is death. Sure, the precise nature of it can trouble us at times, but what can you do?

 

Do you on a daily basis have an expectation that you might die?

[danot]

Do you on a daily basis have an expectation that you might die?

I don't expect anything Snailboy. Yes, I plan ahead, I have to, but in realistic terms, I'm aware of each day potentially being my last. I expect nothing because no one is guaranteed tomorrow, as I've already stated.

[SnailyBoy]

I don't expect anything Snailboy. Yes, I plan ahead, I have to, but in realistic terms, I'm aware of each day potentially being my last. I expect nothing because no one is guaranteed tomorrow, as I've already stated.

 

How does the awareness that each day potentially being your last affect your daily life?

[danot]

How does the awareness that each day potentially being your last affect your daily life?

I'm not troubled by it. I realise and accept that we're all going to die. That's life. No one gets out alive.

[Phanerothyme]

If you regard religion as a social epiphenomenon of spiritual feeling, and spiritual feeling as our coginitive take on an appetite that stems, like all appetites, from the hindbrain, then it's likely to have a role in the meta-evolution of homo sapiens from hunter-gatherers to stockbrokers and fighter pilots.

 

I think the emergence of religion served to seed and stabilise the first societies, and that the agricultural calendar would have depended on the few calendrically literate and numerate individuals in those societies that didn't have to till the soil or husband the animals - and thus had the time to observe and record the heavens and the waters - i.e. the priests and the shamans.

 

Religion brought people together and gave them well defined shared identities, and in time fought with and combined with others. Eventually the monopoly on knoweldge crumbled (this took a long time) leaving us with the vestiges we see today.