Cakes, atheism and having it both ways

by Dr. Martin Slack

So the latest psychological research from Bristol University confirms what many of us knew intuitively: that children grow up with an innate belief in God and the supernatural. It is hardwired into our brains. It is not that we learn to believe in God, it is that we learn to disbelieve.

And that presents the New Atheists with a problem. They have to come up with an evolutionary reason for this innate belief. What survival advantage did religious belief convey on those who
held it?

But their problem runs deeper than that, because (in their opinion) this religious belief is false. So they not only have to reason why religious belief conveyed such an advantage, but why believing something that is false (because, of course, there is no God) would do so. Why would a false perception of the world, a faulty and erroneous interpretation of our surroundings, cause these individuals to survive (and pass on their genes) in preference to those without this belief?
And here lies the New Atheists’ problem. If we cannot trust our rational mind’s interpretation of the physical world - that there is a God - why should we believe it with regard to their atheistic thinking - that there is no God?

If our hardwired belief in God is some sort of evolutionary side effect, that never-the-less results in an erroneous, false perception of the world, why should we pay any more regard to their atheistic views? Why is evolutionary atheistic thinking not just as much an erroneous and false perception that we cannot trust as belief in God?

Which takes me back to childhood and growing up and birthday cakes. Because, as any mother will tell you, you can’t have your cake and eat it.