Quote:
Originally Posted by Elphaba
Perhaps. However, IMO, a soft atheist is really an agnostic, and not a true atheist.
I believe human beings began searching for a higher power the minute the species could comprehend one. Everyone would like to believe there is more than this life, and that they are not alone. Believing in God provides this.
So, no, I don't think people wanting to find a higher power is anything new. In fact, I believe that, from an evolutionary viewpoint, people created gods that best reflected their individual cultures. And as people's cognitive abilities grew, their respective gods evolved as well.
As far as the Pew Survey, if I am right that people who are really agnostic self-identified as atheists, that would explain the screwy numbers.
Elphaba
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I agree. Without pulling out my dictionary, I thought an atheist believes that there was absolutely NO God, while an agnostic could not be certain that there was a God, or that there was
not a God.
Go back as far as you can in written history, and there is religion of some form.
Which to us only makes sense, as Adam and Eve, being the first humans, taught the gospel to their children. It stands to reason that as their descendants multiplied and spread out upon the earth that they would carry that seed of faith, even though it often became distorted and these descendants, as Elphaba said, "created gods that best reflected their individual cultures."