Thursday, October 29, 2009
Are We Wired for Religion?
According to some people, there seems to be a biological imperative for we as humans to search for purpose in a world largely devoid of meaning. One such person's work is linked here http://rationalargumentator.com/issue196/telosdrive.html> Why is it that every single human culture in history had some form of religion? Is there an easy, scientific explanation to this phenomenon? Or does it go deeper than that, right into the very core of what it means to be human? Is religion essential to humanity?
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Much of scientific process is fairly new when one looks at the timeline of human existance. Therefore, even though many of us rational thinkers may disagree with this approach, humans could not simply leave a gap in their knowledge when an unexplainable event or phenomenon occured. As we humans are thinking beings but often times without the resources to uncover many of the finer things in life, we were forced to fill in the gap by saying,"Oh! God must have been responsible." Of course I'm paraphrasing, however, I think the idea is true. When we can't explain something, we tend to work in reverse and make the problem fit the solution, and with the creation of the concept of a God or general divine being who possesses all possible powers and can do whatever the hell he or she or it wants, there's no room for objection. I do think that many religions are beginning to lose their followings due to the emergence of rational thinking and scientific process, however, religion has remained in our minds for generations because they have been passed down from family member to family member for hundreds of years and not to mention the concept of hell or a terrible fate that could await a non devote individual after death.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Harkey. I think (human) nature abhors a vacuum, so for thousands of years, religion sort of served as a placeholder for civilizations everywhere. When something needed to be explained, people could just fall back on mystical explanations. Of course, with ever increasing scientific discoveries, the mysteries of life are being stripped away. That being said, there is a role for religion beyond what Harkey was talking about. Science will never be able to reveal the meaning of life, create a larger purpose for our existence on earth or imbue every person with a sense of good and evil and social justice. These things fall squarely in the realm of religion and have since organized religion's inception. So, what I'm trying to say is basically that while science has revealed alot of mysteries and shaken faith, there are some things that won't be answered, and internal and external roles that religion plays that simply can't be replaced. Thats why religion took such a prominent role in the world, and that's why it likely will remain in that position.
ReplyDeleteHumans seek truths in the world and for many it is found in a Religion. The reason for this is because believing in something that may or may not be true is better then believing in nothing. These beliefs make up faith. This faith is different in every Religion, but for the most part it gives reason to the world. Humans have a desire to fit in not only in social situations but in the world. Without this true meaning what is the purpose to life? I personally don't think that religion has to do with the mind and cant be explained through science I think that it does go deeper then that, it leads back to the soul. Not to sum up men in black, but just looking at the sky creates wonder and questions in the eyes of humans, and almost makes them feel humbled by a greater force. Religion is essential because it keeps the human soul from feeling void and having so many un-answered question.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both harkey and gwin in their argument towards a persons need to fill to space in their knowledge and the deductive reasoning of believing in god. however i think we all have failed to mention the alternate level of Religion, the need for guidence outside of ourselves. While we do all crave the knowledge of where we came from and our purpose i think religion answers that question only mildly because the answer really isn't that important. Religion is repeated and sought after because it allows for human beings to have a line of success drawn for them. Because life hasn't been given a defined meaning, humans look to a God to determine this level of par. It's a comforting matter. I don't think that humans innatley search for religion, they simply want some sort of guidence that cannot be argued with. because no one can really have a real time argument with the big guy upstairs...
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ryan and Mike. The human mind detests the unknown, and for this reason,regardless of our understanding of the world, we as humans will try to explain the unknown in anyway we can. Also, not to offend, but the idea of a divine being is a rather simple one. Why is there lightning? Well Zeus can control lightning and he decided to create a storm. Because all ancient civilizations lacked an understanding that we have today. In addition, because just about all of the things that were unknown to them couldn't be explained without said understanding, they would naturally turn to the divine as an explanation. Although some may argue that this does not detract from the widespread influence of religion, and that it is a valid support for religion, it really has no validity. For example, a vast majority of ancient civilizations had some, dragon-like mythical creature. However that does not mean we think dragons or dragon-like creatures exist. Mike also brings up a good point regarding human purpose, however he forgot a few points. The main idea is that religion gives people an answer to questions whose scientific answers scare and upset people. Questions such as "Why are we here?" and "What happens after we die?" According to science, there is no 'reason' we are here, things just happened such that we exist, and in general, people dislike the idea of not having a purpose for their existence. Also, according to science, there is no thing after death. This idea is disliked more than the previous idea, but it also scares people. In that sense, religion brings comfort to people's lives. So science does offer answers to these questions, they are just generally not well accepted by humanity, and thus they will turn to religion. Does this make religion essential to humanity? Not in the least bit. In fact, if we look at history, we can see that religion has caused more bad than good.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'll add onto the discussion about filling in a void. I think it is wider than just abhoring a vacuum. I think that human nature is not just fearful of nothingness, but rather that we like to assign order to chaos. Religion doesn't just tell us where we came from, but it also sets forth a moral code for people to act under. There's a reason we call our ethics "Christian ethics," and that's why--religion is part of a human movement to make the world, whether in natural phenomena or social interactions, predictable and rational. Any religion is based off of certain assumptions--for Christianity, that there is a God and an afterlife, and that He is all powerful and made the world and such--and from that it establishes order in how we ought to act in society. You must have faith in those fundamental truths, because without faith, the rest of religion loses its order and stability. The world as we know it--or assume to know it--collapses.
ReplyDeleteScience fills another void of its own--assigning order to physical phenomena. While I hate to say it, science, as well as religion, is ultimately based on certain assumptions that we take to be true, and then it builds off of that. Newtonian physics existed for a very long time, based on assumptions like how gravity just pulls stuff together in some magical way, and that things will always move smoothly through space over time. Those were both wrecked to pieces by Einstein and special and general relativity, under which he set forth yet more basic assumptions under which we operate today—that space and time are one, and that gravity warps space and time (which might get screwed up more by quantum mechanics… string theory… you catch my drift). My point is that both science and religion are systems where we start off with initial assumptions and try to establish some order in the world.
I think that that tendency can be somewhat biologically explained. It was probably evolutionarily useful for humans to be curious, to seek knowledge and to try to explain things. When you make the connection that hitting a rock with flint and tinder just right makes fires happen, taking that assumption to be a truth about the world that is explainable opens the door for more innovation. It allows people not just to use tools, but to make them, and to alter the environment around us—hence, the human race surviving.
That’s my take.
hear, hear omar
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ReplyDeleteAn innate tendency of human beings is to assign some semblance of meaning to things they can't comprehend. These beliefs (faith, maybe) serve as a metaphorical bridge that fills the void between common knowledge and the bigger, more incomprehensible picture. Religion provides a foundation for meaning and fact and history that predates human comprehension. With God occupying the role of existence's impetus, humans effectively avoid the burdens of resposibility for the world in which they live. So, as long as man is "wired" for finding convienience, he is also "wired" for religion.
ReplyDeleteAs humans, one of our only real rights is to think for ourselves. Certain external things have influence, but it is ultimately you who decides what you believe. When we are presented with a question it is natural to want to invest a great deal of time and thought into answering it. In fact, it would be foolish not to. You would be passing up an opportunity to exercise one of the few rights we have. So, it is inevitable that we come up with answers to the questions; what is the meaning of life? and, Who created me? When you answer enough of these questions, you have created your religion. It may change completely, it could just shift a little, or you may stick with it for the rest of your life, but each and every one of us have answers to these questions. And it isn't because there is some scientific explanation to why do, it is just that the combination of being curious creatures and the points listed above.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, human beings have an innate tendency to be happiest when they are unaware, or purposefully ignoring concepts they cannot comprehend. Religion takes these brain-twisting concepts out of our hands. In essence, what we cannot explained is assigned an explanation we don't understand. But that is what keeps us happy. Relax, and don't worry about it is what people seek from religion. This might come off as sounding harshly critical, but the eventuality is that religion takes some of the hardest questions in life and makes it so that you don't have to answer them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, on the other side, religion offers a uniquely good system of support for anyone that requires it. As we already established in earlier comments, humans detest a void, and the presence of many similar minded humans is always a comforting occurrence. Community is also what intrinsically draws us to Religion.
Thus religion is somewhat of a double edged sword. One hand it takes the unanswerable questions we are perhaps meant to ponder out of our hands, but it also gives us a base of lots of like minded people in case something in life doesn't add up for us. (which seems to happen alot).
I don't totally agree with Omar that religion is the basis for our moral code. While I agree that religion presents a moral code, and in that respect religion is a good thing, I believe it is possible to have a moral code without religion. In one case, moral code says that we should not kill one another. Though one might argue that we don't kill one another (for the most part) because of our moral code, this can happen without the existence of morality. Piranhas, for example, do not eat each other out of instinct. Now we know for a fact that Piranhas do not have a brain that is capable of having religion, and rather is mostly controlled by instinct. This is an example where our moral code comes from pure instinct.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to the piranha example, you can examine instinctive tendencies and see that morals are actually hardwired to our brains. Basic instinct says to survive, we know this to be true. Now, logically, if one animal were to kill another, it could have a harmful effect on the other organisms. If you look at a pack of wolves, if one wolf kills another, the pack as a whole is weaker because of the loss, and may not eat because of this weakness. Not only that, but the wolf would be ostracized from the pack for killing the other wolf. Wolves also lack religion, yet they present an example even closer to our own moral system.
To summarize, our morals do not come from religion, they come from our instincts.
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ReplyDeleteOK, fine. Morals come from our instincts. They manifest themselves in and are rationalized by religion. Fine.
ReplyDeleteBut unless instincts vary from person to person/society to society, I don't think morality can be traced entirely from instincts. On a basic level of basic rights like life, I suppose those are instinctual. But there are much more specific, societally defined things like adultery, monogamy, charity, etc. that seem to be specific to certain cultures, and I think things like that can be plausibly traced to communal values, which I see as a precursor to religion.