the capacity to adapt and survive in changing environments and develop towards more complex organisms. -------------- Wafflehead, You need to go back a step. First you need to explain ARRIVAL,then you can move on to survival.
("people choose nothing rather than compromise their intelligence by believing in any old something.")
I agree with that statement.Historian Alister McGrath explains: “What propels people toward atheism is above all a sense of revulsion against the excesses and failures of organized religion.” Religion is often seen as a factor behind wars and violence. An atheist and philosopher named Michel Onfray muses on how it is possible that the same religious book could inspire two types of men, one “aspiring to saintliness,” the other “carrying out an act of inhuman cruelty”—terrorism. Ciarán, who grew up against the backdrop of the violence in Northern Ireland, was repulsed by the doctrine of hellfire. He used to declare that he hated any God responsible for such wickedness and challenged God, if He existed, to strike him down. Ciarán is not alone in his revulsion for such harsh church teachings. In fact, church dogma may have helped prepare the way for the theory of evolution. According to Alister McGrath, it was Darwin’s “visceral distaste” for the doctrine of hellfire—not his belief in evolution—that raised doubts in his mind about the existence of God. McGrath also notes Darwin’s “deep grief over the death of his daughter.” For some, the practice of religion is synonymous with mindlessness and fanaticism. Irina, who was disgusted with empty religious sermons and repetitive litanies, relates: “It seemed to me that religious people did not think.” Louis, repelled by the acts of barbarity perpetrated by religious fanatics, took a more radical position: “After showing me its boring face for years, religion now revealed to me its hideous face. I became aggressively opposed to all religion.”
