Why, given how massively homo sapiens has evolved, does the mental illness that is religious belief persist?

"Why, given how massively homo sapiens has evolved, does the mental illness that is religious belief persist?"

It is inculcated through familial brainwashing, generation by generation. It is child abuse and mental terrorism - especially when done in the manner that christians do it.

Humans are emotional creatures, and religions satisfy emotional needs.

Also, no humans are born with an innate knowledge of what is factual and what is not.

Religious belief persists largely because parents, indoctrinated by their parents, propagate the ancient nonsense while their children are too young to question it.

It still exists because God exists, fool.

You don't seem to understand evolution. I raised two children, so I could afford to send them to a good college and offer them everything they needed for a good start.

The christian guy that mows my lawn has 4 children that he can barely feed.

It's a simple fact that the religious have more children than the non-religious. Therefore you can only expect more and more stupid people as time goes on.

Believing in God is a mental illness? So the polar opposite, not believing in God, must ALSO be a mental illness, according to your logic,

Whoah! Man (and woman) has apparently always sought a reason for existence.
Greeks, Romans, Nordics, Australian Aboriginals,
'native' Americans and so on and so forth.
And don't give me the 'big bang' theory, unless you c an explain what caused the big bang.

Evolution isn't a process of seeking perfection. It only favors reproductive effectiveness. Religious belief is clearly helpful in maintaining groups in contact from which to select mates. Once they reproduce, evolution is no longer involved and doesn't care about what such morons do to the rest of us or each other.

You're obviously too stupid to be a doctor.

What sort of mental illness would you associate with someone who believes in spontaneous biogenesis from dead, inorganic matter?

-That which is massively asserted without evidence can be massively dismissed without evidence.- Christopher Hitchens

The mental illness to troll is worse.

Liberalism is a mental illness just look at gender identity for example.

You've created several fallacies in one sentence; congratulations! Did you come here simply to proclaim your dishonesty and ignorance?

Fallacies of presumption begin with a false (or at least unwarranted) assumption, and so fail to establish their conclusion. You misrepresent truth with ulterior motive, fail to provide support for your claim, are dishonest and to be avoided. This is not an opinion poll, there is a place for that. Nobody cares about your unfounded opinion.

Your silly claim is nonsense, unfounded, unsupported, illogical, and irrational, so you aren't really here to gain knowledge, but rather to heckle, taunt, and fabricate lies of confusion like the typical atheist. Essentially, you have nothing to offer anyone. You prove yourself to be either extremely ignorant, or a proven liar, for you to decide.

There is nothing here of any rational consequence to respond to. Unsupported ridicule and innuendo are meaningless. Just another stupid troll.

With your fabricated and unsupportable thinking of opinion, you sound much like the snake in the Garden of Eden, trying to fell all of humanity.

So you deride the Bible, Christianity, and Creation from ignorance and opinion with no support from unfounded opinion? You prove yourself to be a deceiver and fabricator, irrational, illogical, unsupportable, showing you and the snake are both sleezy and despicable, but the snake is less of a lunatic.

Since you think irrationally and illogically, you may never look at facts, and have probably built your entire life on unfounded opinion, may not know what a fact looks like or how to find one or more importantly, prove one. Knowledge cannot exist w/o facts.

Because you rely on unfounded opinion and have never confirmed your starting assumptions (lack ability to recognize a fact), you believe in millions/billions of years. Because of that ASSUMPTION, Genesis not only seems impossible, but improbable as well. Your old age glasses skew your vision as well as your thinking, for example, you EXPECT the Egyptian pyramids to be older than Noah's Flood. Yet the Great Pyramid of Egypt stands on the fossil bearing strata of Noah's Flood. This is how facts are used to reveal truth and destroy lies of unfounded opinion.

Since you are truly ignorant, you must understand that fallacies and lies automatically disqualify you, and you automatically fail at whatever it is you're trying to do. What's the point of showing the depth of your ignorance?

One of the more common logical fallacies used by atheists to make their arguments is equivocation.. An equivocal word is a word that has more than one meaning. The Fallacy of Equivocation occurs when an equivocal word or phrase makes an unsound argument appear sound. An extension of the Equivocation fallacy is Redefining Terms -- where you disregard the denotation of the word and redefine it to suit your position. An excellent example of this is "A Universe From Nothing" IN this Krauss does nothing but redefine the word "Nothing" to mean "Something" and then argue that Nothing (which really is something) produced the Universe.

The issue therefore is not that atheists fail to present proof, the issue is that far too often atheists present opinion as fact or belief as truth. Whether or not this is due to ignorance or deliberate deception is up to the individual to judge for himself.

Atheism is an irrational position, which is why it cannot be supported without either absurd claims, or logical fallacies.

A simple lack of belief is generally passive.. One who has a lack of belief in Santa Claus does not picket and ridicule people at the mall in line with their kids to see the store santa.. Non-stamp collectors don't hang out at the post office to badmouth people buying commemorative stamps.. Non-believers in Mermaids don't bother people at cinema's who are there to see Disney's "The Little Mermaid" So if atheism is just a passive belief, why do atheists harass and attack theists? Actions speak louder than words and your actions make your words ring hollow.

Atheists would have no reason to troll in this area if they did not recognize theism as a threat... That they are here demonstrates they recognize their position is not self sustaining! If it were self sustaining it would stand on it's own without having to try tearing down other positions.

Atheists are cowards at heart and can't handle an intelligent response. Their purpose here is to spread doubt - anybody with intelligence can quickly cut through their lies, logical fallacies and reveal them for the fools they are.

Atheism, has no positive message, it not rationally tenable and your more activist atheists are rude obnoxious and annoying. Given those factors atheism is wildly successful! Most philosophies having the same attributes died out within a generation or two.

Why can't atheists figure out their ignorance does not constitute anybody else's error? Denying the evidence does not make it go away it just makes you look ignorant!

If you really want to know whether a theist or atheist is more closed-minded, one of the two approaches the evidence with an unproven exclusionary presupposition -- Atheists. That by definition is closed minded!

How could anyone choose to be more pointless? How can you counter Unity more, how can you scatter people more than to have the arrogant disregard to believe and do whatever you want? Anyone driven by what they DON'T want, is living a very negative life, and attracting everything negative to themselves. Many will finally see the light as they get older, but in the meantime are no more than pests that need to be swatted.

When you get around to objectively validating the Philosophy of Materialism then you have a rational basis to assert there is no God and can call those who believe there is a God irrational. Until then your assertions related to God are faith based!

Asserting your faith based assertion is not any more rational than somebody else's faith based assertion is itself irrational.

With proof of human adaptation, how can you NOT believe in evolution?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/with-proof-of-human-adaptation-how-can-you-not-believe-in-evolution

Why do atheists act so hateful to God?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/why-do-atheists-act-so-hateful-to-god

Creationist theory?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/creationist-theory

Is Evolution or Creationism the Truth?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/is-evolution-or-creationism-the-truth

Why do young-earth creationists insist the earth is only 6,000 years old and that there were dinosaurs on the ark?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/why-insist-the-earth-is-only-6-000-years-old-and-dinosaurs-on-ark

Eight Evidences for a Young Earth
Young Earther Christians, what's your scientific proof the earth is young?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/eight-evidences-of-a-young-earth

To religious people out there who cannot accept evolution
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/to-religious-people-out-there-who-cannot-accept-evolution

Is God real? (im a catholic)?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/is-god-real-im-a-catholic

Just how significant is evolution in our lives?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/just-how-significant-is-evolution-in-our-lives

How many SCIENTIFIC reasons can you think of to illustrate why Evolution is not a good theory?
http://plottingeoe.com/blog/scientific-reasons-to-illustrate-why-evolution-is-not-a-good-theory

The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!

Atheism is not a conscious decision or a belief but a realisation, those that cannot escape remain prisoners of their conditioning!

Given 93 million killed under Communism in the 20th century, the prevalence of infanticide, and the ongoing destruction of the family, given the present insanity that denies even the permanence of our sexual identity, the evidence suggests that mental illness comes from refusing to follow God's directions.

Just because you believe in God doesn't mean you can't believe in evolution, you retarded, black and white bltch!

Homo sapiens is a species that arose a few hundred thousand years ago. We are the same species today. Massive evolution in the sense that we are improved over pre-historic homo Sapiens is not a scientifically valid idea. It is completely unrelated to religious thought. Mental illness is typically not extended to benign religious thoughts. You are not speaking rationally. Do you think you are?

This "mental illness" must have some evolutionary benefit.

Can't help. Such people are adamant and rigid in their attitudes.

mental illness is first defined by the bible as those that are fools, and atheists are called "fools".
my dear soul, person, unbeliever, the worst kind of brain washing is done in government schools even since separation of church and state perjured the laws against having a false definition of separatio of church and state.
evolution is now the governments religious belief, under the banner of devil worship and atheism. its all a complete and utter LIE.
knowing that jesus exists ! and angels are seen by tens of thousands of people, no honest person can deny there is a God and knowing the bible testifies as well as the book of mormon also testifies of jesus and God, an honest man Must confess Jesus is real and God is real. on another NOTE, it is Government and world elite illuminati that poisons our food, our drinking water and the air we breath which chemicals that are the main cause of mental illness. its a historical Fact that floride in the water dumbs the mind down. and mixxed with aluminates in the air, the floride and aluminum cause symptoms like Alzheimers in the brain. so! mental illness is more caused by conspiracy of men that reject God. and men that do these things are criminals, and people who spread the poisons with their own hands are not any less guilty of assault and battery and the felony of poisoning others. yes religious people become fanatical. the worst extremes happen throughout the spectrum of faith and unbelief.