Our February meeting will be on Sunday, February 8 from 6 to 8 pm in the Sanctuary/Commons. We will start with a potluck dinner to be followed by a talk by J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., M.D., on “Why We Believe In God(s).” Dr. Thomson is a psychiatrist in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is also a staff psychiatrist at Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of Virginia Student Health Services and the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. In addition, Dr. Thomson is the Treasurer of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
President Obama could hold a press conference and say, “My fellow Americans, I am pleased to announce that scientists, including many of ours, have unraveled the mystery of why human minds manufacture gods and believe in them. Some of the crucial work was even done at our National Institutes of Health. We can now dispense with all these dangerous, stem cell opposing and terrorism inspiring beliefs. We and our fellow citizens of the world can now be who we are, seven billion humans descended from a small group of hunter gatherers who lived in Africa seven hundred centuries ago.”
Few people realize that cognitive neuroscience has mapped out how and why human minds produce, accept and spread religious beliefs. This knowledge is available, accessible, and should be a required part of a 21st century education. This presentation will review the basic mechanisms human minds use to generate and sustain religious beliefs as well as the neurobiology of the rituals that reinforce them. There is a massive, irreconcilable conflict between science and theistic religion. Religion was humanity’s original cosmology, biology and anthropology. It provided explanations for the origin of the world, life and humans. Science now gives us increasingly complete explanations for those big three. And, science now gives us the anatomy of religious belief.
For the potluck dinner, please bring something to share. Suggestions: casseroles with a card explaining ingredients, rice, potatoes, vegetable dishes, bread, fruit or dessert. Each dish should have enough for 8 – 10 people. Bring whatever YOU would like to drink.