Re: Dawkins was right all along

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Sun Sep 23 2001 - 22:50:46 BST

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Subject: Re: Dawkins was right all along
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 17:50:46 -0400
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From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
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    Hi Bill Spight -

    >Please show how learning is, by definition, necessary for belief, using
    >the dictionary definition.

    A belief is "Something believed or accepted as true, especially a
    particular tenet or a body of tenets accepted by a group of persons."

    I fail to see how believing tenets accepted by a group of persons is not
    a learned behavior.

    But, really, semantics and definitions aside, religion _is_ a learned
    behavior. Period. It is not innate. Acting as the agent of a religion is
    a learned behavior. Period. It is not innate. Accepting rewards in an
    afterlife is a belief, and beliefs are tenets held _without evidence_.
    Learned tenets.

    Explain how one gets tales of an afterlife without being taught same.

    - Wade

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