The science of religion - Where angels no longer fear to tread

Economist | Mar. 27, 2008 (Review)

By the standards of European scientific collaboration, E2m ($3.1m) is not a huge sum. But it might be the start of something that will challenge human perceptions of reality at least as much as the billions being spent by the European particle-physics laboratory (CERN) at Geneva. The first task of CERN's new machine, the Large Hadron Collider, which is due to open later this year, will be to search for the Higgs boson--an object that has been dubbed, with ... Full Story »

Posted by Leo Romero

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by Dwight Rousu - Oct. 1, 2008

This is a well written report on a tricky subject. It describes fundamental research on social Darwinism of fundamentalists who often reject Darwin out of hand. It is interesting that fear of a sanctifying deity is one of the strongest findings, and fear is the strongest short term motivator. This parallels with the most insecure societies having the most religiosity, emblemized by the increase in fundamentalist observation of faith in occupied Iraq. Religiosity seems to act by helping group cohesion to act confidently in the presence of ignorance and fear of the unknown. In a Darwinian sense, this could lead to societal Darwinism when the confident act is drinking Jonestown kool-aid, Napolean invading Russia, or Bush invading ... More »

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