Dear reader please forgive me for I have sinned. My selfish tendency to fulfill my profane, secular needs have obscured the pursuit of higher goals like writing today's post... I could not resist seeing Avengers: Endgame a second time at the cinema, which leaves me with precious little time to pull this of.
source: Wikimedia Commons
Okay, maybe that was a bit heavy-handed, but it's an illustration of what I'll briefly discuss with you today; the likelihood that religion, and a lot of other belief systems, are in fact a product of evolution, not just cultural, but also biological. In yesterday's article I briefly touched upon the triune model of the brain, and how our reptilian brain unconsciously direct behavior in a way that is beneficial to survival. So I'd like to revisit the rustle in the bush and explain how the choice between wind or predator might have set us on a path to adopt religion as well as a heap of other irrational beliefs.
When primitive man was hunting for food and heard a rustle in the bush at night, there were two explanations as to the origin of that sound; it was either the wind, or a predator. Our biology, the automated process of heightened alertness and assuming a state of "fight or flight", has determined that we assume it's a predator, when the more logical assumption would be that it's the wind; 999 times out of a thousand it WILL be the wind. It's only our primitive brain's survival mechanisms that automatically make us have a preference for the irrational, or less rational explanation of the rustle in the bush.
One of the best description of humans I've heard was that we are "pattern-seeking, story-telling mammals"; our survival depends for a great deal on our ability, and tendency to seek out patterns in random information. This is necessary for us to categorize and conceptualize things, so we can subsequently communicate our intentions with other members of our tribe, which in turn unleashed the greatest power on our planet to date; human collaboration. I'm going to take a giant step and say that through our cultural evolution we've come to connect patterns with agency, which gave birth to the idea of Gods, and human agency in particular, which gave rise to a God that created us in His (or Her) image, and can listen to our prayers.
Image by emmma peel - source: Flickr
Religion is a meme; this word was coined by new atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene," in which he argues that our cultural evolution is in service of our genes, and that memes spread if they are successful in aiding one of our core survival needs. In that sense, religion in general and Christianity in particular, has been a highly successful meme, as it is simply a way for us to rise above ourselves and be part of something bigger, something shared, something that binds us behind a common ideology and improves the potency of that greatest force in nature, which is, I repeat it gladly, human cooperation.
The same goes for what we call "religious experiences"; these are moments when we lose the self, and become an integral part of a whole. And it doesn't matter which route we take to rise above ourselves to experience this feeling that's almost always described as intensely gratifying and happy; some use drugs, some use meditation, and we all know it from these moments when we feel insignificant while observing some grandiose vista of nature, or losing ourselves in the sea of stars in the night's sky. Also the things we categorize as "virtues" are largely based on limiting self-interest and expanding on what's good for all of us. If you consciously experienced the 9/11 attacks on the Empire State buildings, you know how we rise above ourselves through a strong sense of community.
Although my introduction was indeed quite inflated, it's true that you are my stairway to rise above my humble self, and for that I'm forever grateful. And I once again apologize for the fact that this is all I've managed to produce today; an improvised piece of psychological quackery, pieced together with bits of knowledge I picked up here and there throughout my years as a pattern-seeking, story-telling mammal, complete with no links at all. I pray for you to have mercy on my soul...
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