>Once upon a time a scientist was training pigeons to do various things
>for food rewards, a pigeon one day might stand on one leg, and
>incidentally receive a food reward. Even though standing on one...

> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 09:06:22 -0700 (PDT), Immortalist
> yahoo.com> wrote:
>

>> Once upon a time a scientist was training pigeons to do various things
>> for food rewards, a pigeon one day might stand on one leg, and
>> incidentally receive a food reward. Even though standing on one leg
>> had nothing to do with getting the reward, the pigeon would ever after
>> stand on one leg when it pecked away at the computer panels. The
>> behaviour would be reinforced, since it appeared to work. Human
>> religionists often do the same when they change severals religeous
>> interpretations of the world and it starts working. They assume all
>> the things they did were necessary, and prosletyse to others about
>> their necessity. These superstitions are for the most part harmless,
>> but they do make needless extra work when new facts are discovered
>> about the world that conflict with these dogmas.
>>
>> http://mindprod.com/jgloss/pigeonsuperstition.html
>>
>> A superstition is an irrational belief about the relation between ...

> John Locke wrote:

>> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 09:06:22 -0700 (PDT), Immortalist
>> yahoo.com> wrote:

>

>>> Once upon a time a scientist was training pigeons to do various things
>>> for food rewards, a pigeon one day might stand on one leg, and
>>> incidentally receive a food reward. Even though standing on one leg
>>> had nothing to do with getting the reward, the pigeon would ever after
>>> stand on one leg when it pecked away at the computer panels. The
>>> behaviour would be reinforced, since it appeared to work. Human
>>> religionists often do the same when they change severals religeous
>>> interpretations of the world and it starts working. They assume all
>>> the things they did were necessary, and prosletyse to others about
>>> their necessity. These superstitions are for the most part harmless,
>>> but they do make needless extra work when new facts are discovered
>>> about the world that conflict with these dogmas.

>

>>>http://mindprod.com/jgloss/pigeonsuperstition.html

> ...

> Once upon a time a scientist was training pigeons to do various things
> for food rewards, a pigeon one day might stand on one leg, and
> incidentally receive a food reward. Even though standing on one leg
> had nothing to do with getting the reward, the pigeon would ever after
> stand on one leg when it pecked away at the computer panels. The
> behaviour would be reinforced, since it appeared to work. Human
> religionists often do the same when they change severals religeous
> interpretations of the world and it starts working. They assume all
> the things they did were necessary, and prosletyse to others about
> their necessity. These superstitions are for the most part harmless,
> but they do make needless extra work when new facts are discovered
> about the world that conflict with these dogmas.
>
> http://mindprod.com/jgloss/pigeonsuperstition.html
>
> A superstition is an irrational belief about the relation between
> certain actions--often behaviors--and later occurrences, such as the
> belief that the number 13 causes misfortune or bad luck. Whether a
> belief is superstitious is not defined by the "truth" of the result, ...

> ...claims by Richard Dawkins, among others, that supernaturalism is
> primarily attributable to religions spreading beliefs among the gullible
> minds of the young, [needs to be challenged]...

> On Apr 9, 6:55 pm, Preventer of Work wrote:

>> John Locke wrote:

>>> On Wed, 9 Apr 2008 09:06:22 -0700 (PDT), Immortalist
>>> yahoo.com> wrote:

>>

>>>> Once...