Really!?

Re #5-i was talking to a guy once and I told him my then 10 year old grandson was telling others he didn't believe in god. He knew I was an atheist and said, "Y'all aren't teaching him that, are you?" I told him we weren't teaching about religion at all, but pointed out to him that he was taught Christianity by his parents, so why should teaching there is no God be different??? ‍

Everything on that meme is pretty much true.

I didn't know who Bill Flavel was, so I did a cursory search and didn't see much other than that he promotes atheism. I don't know what his knowledge of biology might be, but he seems to have left that factor out of his analysis.

When we take biology into account, it's not as simple as it appears on the surface. That's why we created science - to look beneath the surface.

1. To say that humans invent gods and religions is correct in the way that it's correct to say humans "invented" agriculture. That's a reasonable shorthand, but it's not the most precise way to describe it. No one sat in their cave or tent and thought up agriculture. Agriculture was a product of observing natural events, making creative guesses, and experimenting with the natural world we found ourselves in. Homo sapiens, rather than any specific humans, created agriculture by observing, naming, and manipulating their surroundings, over many generations, accumulating knowledge and passing it to their offspring - the definition of culture. Individual humans didn't sit in their tent and think up or invent gods or religion. Gods and religions evolved culturally, just as all human behavior evolves, over many generations, because it serves a purpose that our species values.

2. Depends. On how you define"gods" and "exist". Do ideas exist? Do moods or feelings exist? Do memes exist? Do biologically evolved behavioral tendencies exist? Many have been identified. A number of which might lend themselves toward predisposing humans to god belief - theory of mind, hyperactive agency detection, minimally counterintuitive concepts, not to mention the possibility that religious inclination may be directly adaptive. There is quite a lot of evidence to support the idea that gods exist as a human psychotechnology which has contributed positively to our survival and reproduction.

3. Whether a religion is "true" is a loaded question. It assumes that the objective truth of religious beliefs is a fair measure of their biological functionality. It isn't. Is a peacock's tail true? I don't know. But I have some idea how it functions in evolutionary terms. Are rituals that generate social cohesion true? It doesn't matter, evolutionarily. Social cohesion matters.

4. True.

5. True. But not any truer of religion than any other type of indoctrination. And see No.3.

6. Well, they come through families. And communities. Like all values, sacred or secular.

7. A non-statement without specifying what is expected to be delivered and to whom. If you're expecting to pray up a Maserati, you might be waiting a while. But I'm pretty sure a number of studies have shown positive psychological benefits from practices such as meditation, prayer, mindfulness, etc. People who don't believe these activities offer any benefits, probably won't find any in them.

8. That's how it works.

9. True. Don'tcha just hate it when people find comfort!?

10. Yeah, but we have emotions for a reason.