Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA00579 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 22 Sep 2001 19:23:54 +0100 Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 11:17:19 -0700 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Dawkins was right all along To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3BACD5AF.D3809672@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Accept-Language: en References: <20010922153222.AAA7191%camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.2]> Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Wade,
> "Beliefs, including religious ones, are learned. Which makes atheism a
> normal state of affairs and religious beliefs a learned "abnormality". No
> psychological theory is necessary to explain the causes of a normal base
> state. Any psychological theory of learning, attitude change or
> socialization can explain the causes of religious belief."
> - Rosemary Lyndall, clinical neuro-psychologist
>
Dr. Lyndall is confusing no belief in God with belief that there is no
God. Ever worse, she shows an ignorance of child psychology. Children
have many beliefs that are not learned. Anyone who has studied Piaget
knows that. The innate mind is not a tabula rasa.
There was a time when I was a child that I thought that chocolate milk
came from calves. ;-) Nobody taught me that. Children form beliefs as
they try to make sense of the world. Learning is only part of the
process, and a good bit of learning involves unlearning misconceptions.
> The fact that all children are atheists is an often overlooked one. And
> saying so can get you killed in some places.
>
Overlooked because it is not so. If anything, untutored children are
animists, I expect. They attribute life to movement and change. The idea
of a Rain God or Thunder God is one that could arise spontaneously from
such attribution, for instance.
Best,
Bill
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