You are arguing against an ability having an evolutionary advantage based on social norms and your opinion. Also you seem to think that credulity is limited to children in our species.
Um, where did I say that? (I didn't)
I said it is an evolutionary benefit and survival mechanism in children. As adults this is thankfully not the case. If you removed the traits of curiosity and critical thinking (which evolutionary processes would, if they were not advantageous), we would be no better off than sheep. It would be depressing to be continually outwitted by a border collie
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If we all believed what we were told by people in authority we would all still believe that earth is flat, the sun revolves around the earth and that illness is caused by evil spirits. We do not still live in caves because we are a curious species, not satisfied with the limitations of what we have or what we know. Our drive to question, learn and explore is our greatest asset, leading us to our greatest accomplishments, and the thing which organised religion has always sought (and failed) to suppress.
We, as adults, believe people we trust based on available evidence and on our experiences. Sometimes we trust instinct and intuition when limited evidence is available to help with a particular choice, but generally we consider what we are told, what we see, what we hear and what has happened previously before we decide something, or we really should do anyway.
Children do not have these intellectual defences. How do you think it has always been so easy for some priests to sexually abuse children? because they are programmed to obey what an adult says to them, particularly someone in authority like a priest.
Some adults are also clearly credulous and susceptible to the kind of indoctrination that children are so vulnerable to, but it is more often than not after a mental or emotional breakdown, or if they have underlying mental health issues or a learning disability. Not every case, of course, but mostly.
If religions were only able to pitch their wares to rational adults who had had no childhood pre-exposure to religion it would be game over. Luckily, you will always have children and vulnerable adults.
I am very credulous person though. As an example;
I was in Dun Laoghaire the other day and I was hungry. I had no money on me and was looking for an ATM. I could not find one. Finally I stopped a woman on the street and asked where can I find an ATM. She gave me directions and I (being the credulous person that I am) followed them. I don't know if it was the million of years of biological evolution, or the fact that I was drunk and homeless looking, why I did what I did. But I followed very complex directions, that I had no way to show were true (empirically or logically) found an ATM and got bought a sandwich.
Obviously I sat there eating the sandwich thinking "Oh the credulous fools, why would they believe things they are told? I am a free thinker. Why does credulity exist when it has no evolutionary advantage?".
Thanks for your lovely story. Heartwarming. If you'd been so credulous in most big cities in the world you'd have been robbed and probably worse. I've been to Dun Laoghaire, It's hardly Soweto, is it?
I also note you asked a woman. If there were only large shifty looking large blokes around what would you have done? What would you have done if a bloke you asked for directions said that if you just game him your cash card he would have a word with his brother who knows the special code to enter at cashpoints and you would get unlimited money at every cash machine in Dun Laoghaire?
Would you have been credulous?
Conspicuous credulity in adults is called naivety and is rather pathetic in those who should know better, and almost always exploited by others. It basically means you are a mug.
