Would you give up your belief in Atheism if you knew it would result in the end of the human race?

I heard that interesting broadcast too; but, you are misinterpreting its implications. What it hypothesized was that supernatural belief provides a selective advantage by making people more socially cooperative even when no one is watching them. They said that this would have been an advantage, for instance, in primitive societies where there were no laws and police to enforce them.

Now society has become much more formalized and antisocial behavior is reduced by other means. You will note that the experiments showed that the supernatural belief effect can come from a completely false belief (the invisible princess) and really amounts to simple trickery by an authority figure. The study essentially reinforces the conclusion that stuff like this actually works, at least on children: "He sees you when you're sleeping He knows if you're awake He knows if you've been bad or good (so you'd) better be good for goodness sake Better be good for goodness sake" This theory does not imply that supernatural belief is required or advantageous in modern society.In fact, in practice religion seems much more like a vermiform appendix, a vestigial and useless relic of the past which from time to time can become inflamed and cause sickness and death.

I'm not an atheist but was once. I can't change my belief simply because I learn it may lead to the end of all humanity. Really I think the earth would be better without us, but it's still irrelevant.

The idea of belief is that you believe it. Everyone dying as a result of my belief wouldn't change I didn't believe even if I pretended and joined some random religion. This isn't to suggest one cannot alter their belief based on new information learned, that would be why I'm not longer an atheist I found a faith system I believed in, but that the information learned must be directly linked to the belief.

For instance if a large bearded man popped out of the sky and said believe, or all will perish, then sure that's a reason to change faiths.

Belief is not really something that you can change at will. You can PRETEND, but you can not turn off a belief just because you think you will be better off not believing it. That said, I also do not think that most religion has as much to do with survival as it does with coping, and filling a human need to have meaning in one's life.

The belief in God is by no means the only way to fill that need, and thus atheism does not equal extinction. On a side note, atheists fascinate me because they claim to "know" that there is no God just as a devout Christian or Muslim "knows" that there is a God. Aren't they all ultimately blind faith?

First of all, I'm atheist, so I think I do qualify to answer your question. Second, what you quote is only a hypothesis, not a proof of anything. Third, even if it were true, religiosity (or believing in God) could be a by-product of another, more substantial evolutionary adaptation.

Fourth, "The suggestion seems to be that belief in the supernatural WAS, AT SOME POINT, necessary for the survival of the species". If we needed to believe in God at some point to get better adapted to our circumstances, it might not be the case now, when we're adapting the environment to our needs. Still, of course I would stop being an atheist if I knew it would result in the end of the human race.

This is not the case, though.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.