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Well, of course, right? If you are God and you are in the design phase of the human creature and also intend for them to have written scriptures, then as part o

Well, of course, right? If you are God and you are in the design phase of the human creature and also intend for them to have written scriptures, then as part of that design you would provide them with the ability to perceive words as a "built-in" function.

wryoak 6y ago
Yeah but God passed down His word as an oral tradition first. Scripting feature was rolled out quite a bit after launch...
wombatmobile 6y ago
I don't know of any evidence that suggests God exists, but Nature exists, and humans adapt to it. Facial recognition has an obvious survival advantage to humans. It's a core part of how we decide behaviour. We recognise our family, friends, and foe, and act accordingly. But writing? It doesn't exist in nature. What does exist in nature is something similar, of the size, detail and information content of letters and words. These are animals such as birds on trees, in the sky, or on the ground in the distance. They are only a few pixels high, like letters, and their body language tells us a lot. Imagine a couple of crows on a branch 50 feet away. Or a flock of seagulls on the horizon at dusk. What do they tell you? It depends on what they are doing. Are their wings flapping Y shapes, K shapes, or is it a smooth, gliding Y shape? You can tell in an instant what's going on. That's because your brain has this module to analyse their behaviour in real time.
- pmdulaney 6y ago
  My post is somewhat tongue in cheek -- not in the sense that I'm not a Christian (a young earth creationist, in fact), but in the sense that I don't expect someone to become a Christian because of this discovery. (Nor for that matter, would my faith be falsifiable; that is, I wouldn't cease to be a creationist if later research showed that there was in fact no such hardwired capability.) But I do think it's a good thing for unbelievers to ponder. Even more so: Why is there anything at all? Thank you for your kind response.
  - wombatmobile 6y ago
    What is a young earth creationist? Your comments about not expecting anyone to become a Christian is interesting. If that applies to you, then I suppose you didn't become a Christian because some evidence persuaded you. Is that a fair statement? What would make someone become a Christian?
    - pmdulaney 6y ago
      A young earth creationist takes the early chapters of Genesis at face value; that is, God created the heavens and the earth in six literal 24-hour days, approximately 10,000 years ago. Back in the fourth century there was a controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. Pelagius took what I think is fair to call the common sense view: people can decide to become a Christian after evaluating the evidence the same way they can decide to buy a Nikon camera rather than a Canon. It seems to me that he wanted to be able to chide those who failed to become Christians and could only consistently do that if it was ultimately in their power to do it. Augustine took the opposing viewpoint, saying that one can only believe if the Holy Spirit gives grace to believe. And Jesus, I think, is on Augustine's side: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6.44). I am a big fan of the English Puritan John Owen. He basically says that the Holy Spirit reveals to each believer that the Scriptures are the word of God -- and once you know that the Bible is the word of God, you know that its assertions are true. But I certainly think that God uses evidences and natural revelation (i.e., the character of God based on what He has made). But most Jews at the time of Christ failed to believe in him even though they witnessed a multitude of miracles. So miracles alone won't do it -- even though many unbelievers today say that is exactly what it would take for them to believe.
      - wombatmobile 6y ago
        Leaving aside evidence based cases in which a decision is made to convert to Christianity, what do you suppose is happening, neurologically, when "the Holy Spirit reveals to each believer that the Scriptures are the word of God" i.e. the case of spontaneous, enlightened conversion? Consider the case when a human sponteneously converts to a non-Christian belief system. If the neurological correlates of that case could be shown to align with the Christian case, what might that tell us about religiosity?

wryoak 6y ago

Yeah but God passed down His word as an oral tradition first. Scripting feature was rolled out quite a bit after launch...

wombatmobile 6y ago

I don't know of any evidence that suggests God exists, but Nature exists, and humans adapt to it. Facial recognition has an obvious survival advantage to humans. It's a core part of how we decide behaviour. We recognise our family, friends, and foe, and act accordingly. But writing? It doesn't exist in nature. What does exist in nature is something similar, of the size, detail and information content of letters and words. These are animals such as birds on trees, in the sky, or on the ground in the distance. They are only a few pixels high, like letters, and their body language tells us a lot. Imagine a couple of crows on a branch 50 feet away. Or a flock of seagulls on the horizon at dusk. What do they tell you? It depends on what they are doing. Are their wings flapping Y shapes, K shapes, or is it a smooth, gliding Y shape? You can tell in an instant what's going on. That's because your brain has this module to analyse their behaviour in real time.

pmdulaney 6y ago
My post is somewhat tongue in cheek -- not in the sense that I'm not a Christian (a young earth creationist, in fact), but in the sense that I don't expect someone to become a Christian because of this discovery. (Nor for that matter, would my faith be falsifiable; that is, I wouldn't cease to be a creationist if later research showed that there was in fact no such hardwired capability.) But I do think it's a good thing for unbelievers to ponder. Even more so: Why is there anything at all? Thank you for your kind response.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  What is a young earth creationist? Your comments about not expecting anyone to become a Christian is interesting. If that applies to you, then I suppose you didn't become a Christian because some evidence persuaded you. Is that a fair statement? What would make someone become a Christian?
  - pmdulaney 6y ago
    A young earth creationist takes the early chapters of Genesis at face value; that is, God created the heavens and the earth in six literal 24-hour days, approximately 10,000 years ago. Back in the fourth century there was a controversy between Augustine and Pelagius. Pelagius took what I think is fair to call the common sense view: people can decide to become a Christian after evaluating the evidence the same way they can decide to buy a Nikon camera rather than a Canon. It seems to me that he wanted to be able to chide those who failed to become Christians and could only consistently do that if it was ultimately in their power to do it. Augustine took the opposing viewpoint, saying that one can only believe if the Holy Spirit gives grace to believe. And Jesus, I think, is on Augustine's side: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6.44). I am a big fan of the English Puritan John Owen. He basically says that the Holy Spirit reveals to each believer that the Scriptures are the word of God -- and once you know that the Bible is the word of God, you know that its assertions are true. But I certainly think that God uses evidences and natural revelation (i.e., the character of God based on what He has made). But most Jews at the time of Christ failed to believe in him even though they witnessed a multitude of miracles. So miracles alone won't do it -- even though many unbelievers today say that is exactly what it would take for them to believe.
    - wombatmobile 6y ago
      Leaving aside evidence based cases in which a decision is made to convert to Christianity, what do you suppose is happening, neurologically, when "the Holy Spirit reveals to each believer that the Scriptures are the word of God" i.e. the case of spontaneous, enlightened conversion? Consider the case when a human sponteneously converts to a non-Christian belief system. If the neurological correlates of that case could be shown to align with the Christian case, what might that tell us about religiosity?