The Spiritual Anthropologist

Where Alcohol and Anthropology Meet

Breaking the Spell: Unreasonable Views on the Nature of Religion

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Apr 20 0

Recently, I came across an article discussing Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. I have not focused on Daniel Dennett’s work, but I wanted to respond to the discussion in the article, and will be adding more to this discussion as I read through the book. One of the largest issues is that Dennett’s position seems to be that Dennett, or at least the author of the blog article, seems to view religious behavior as being indistinct from non-religious belief: “from the meme’s-eye-view, there’s no difference between a Muslim who prays five times a day because he truly believes in Allah and the truth of the Koran, and a Muslim who prays five times a day because that’s what Muslims do.” The second issue is the view that religion perpetuates itself because there is a belief that religion is good. « Continue »

Those Who Claim Religion is a Delusion are Delusional

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Dec 29 9

Prominent individuals in psychology have stated or implied that religion is a delusion. These people are often delusional themselves. I have explained why religion is not a delusion or mental illness in “The Pervasive Nature of Religiophobia” and “Religion is an Illness and Evolution is Wrong (Not).“« Continue »

A Rebuttal to “Is Religion Useful…” by Genetically Modified Skeptic

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Nov 12 0

Religion is useful, but Genetically Modified Skeptic misses the real point and fails to understand a lot about the scientific study of religion.« Continue »

What Would an Eternal (After)life Feel Like?

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Sep 6 0

Certain people who argue against the existence of an eternal afterlife like to argue that it would feel like “hell” or that we cannot even imagine it. I disagree. There are ways that we can guess what it would be like, and to find a clue to this question, all one needs is a little bit of calculus.« Continue »

Religion is an Illness and Evolution is Wrong (Not)

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Aug 19 0

Religion is not an illness. This short discussion provides one of many arguments as to why this is the case.« Continue »

Rebuttal to Faith and Belief: Remnants of Our Ancestry Used to Enslave Our Minds

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Aug 11 0

Faith and Belief: Remnants of Our Ancestry Used to Enslave Our Minds, by Glen Vickers, attempts to look at the evolutionary psychology of religion, but fails miserably. It had the potential to be a solid work, however it could have benefited from better fact checking, a more skilled copy editor, and the reliance on citation. It also suffers from clear biases against religion, expressed by the author, rather than scientific objectivity. « Continue »

I Have No Issue with Prayer

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Dec 21 1

Some atheists are offended when people say that they will pray for them. I have no such issue with prayer. I simply don’t believe it will work.« Continue »

Penguinism

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Dec 20 0

This is just a pet project of mine: constructing a fun little religion. Started many years ago when I was a kid. This is a work in progress draft of The Penguinomicon.« Continue »

The Problem of Evil: A Few Analogies to Bring Perspective

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Dec 19 0

The problem of evil seems to destroy god claims. However, this is only true if we look at life as a very significant component of our existence.
« Continue »

Bede as a Proper History

By alcanthro Leave a Comment Dec 19 0

The following is a paper on the historical nature of Bede. It is relevant to other historical and psuedo-historical documents, including the Bible. It’s been converted from .docx format, so there may be some errors. This may later be extended into a more robust paper on the nature of history.« Continue »

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