A.P. Lawrence Home

Personal	Writings	Philosophy and Religion	Recreation	Humor	Books	Main Site

Desmond Morris commented in a BBC column (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3964579.stm):

In theory, the existence of Mini-Man should destroy religion, but
I can already hear the fanatics claiming that he has been put on
earth by the Devil simply to test our faith.

No matter what, people will never give up religion. You can see that in the comments at the article. If we discovered evidence of a 4 billion year old spacecraft with notes inside detailing how the first cells were hand-crafted as an experiment by an alien biologist, the religious folk would variously insist it was fake, the devil put it there, or that a god still created that alien biologist and their faith is thereby reaffirmed.

They just will NOT give it up no matter what. I don't think they ever will. It's too ingrained, too frightening, too comfortable - they need it.

If we ever reach the point where we can communicate with other intelligent beings, it will be interesting to see how many developed this "god thing". We tend to think of it as natural - that primitive people automatically invent gods, but that may not be the case. Humans might be quite abnormal in that matter. On the other hand, the universe may be full of fundamentalist religious fervor - now THAT'S a depressing thought :-)