Research proves that belief in a higher power helps humanity

[Divine Insight]

"Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival."

Scientific research shows that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival?

Your thoughts?

[LiamOS]

This is quite interesting, really. I'd really have to wonder what they mean by 'helping survival', though, as that would be a really bad thing in a lot of ways.

[ThatGirlAgain]

"Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival."

Scientific research shows that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival?

Your thoughts?

This is probably a reference to the work done by Newman. The idea is that with the proper stimuli it is possible to put the brain in a state that involves (among other things) a major reduction in activity in the region that controls our perception of where the various parts are with respect to the environment. This results in a sort of ‘selflessness’ and the perception of abstract entities as being real, possibly as real as any object of sensory perception.

The tie in to survival is the speculation that in primitive cultures having a whole community achieve this kind of state could foster the idea of the community as a real thing. This would lead to individuals being more willing to work more on behalf of the community and less for themselves as well as allowing the introduction of a common set of behavioral rules. These are definitely survival tools in a species so ill equipped for solitary living as ours is. This was presumably the original and to at least some extent still the purpose of religion.

[Divine Insight]

The tie in to survival is the speculation that in primitive cultures having a whole community achieve this kind of state could foster the idea of the community as a real thing. This would lead to individuals being more willing to work more on behalf of the community and less for themselves as well as allowing the introduction of a common set of behavioral rules. These are definitely survival tools in a species so ill equipped for solitary living as ours is. This was presumably the original and to at least some extent still the purpose of religion.

But is speculation science?

We see community behavior in many animals species, as well as "pecking orders", and it even appears that communities of animals recognize certain behavioral "rules". Obviously they don't have these written down or think about them in terms of language, but they seem to know what's "right or wrong" behavior within their group.

So should we conclude that these animals species believe in a "higher power" in order to be able to form their "community behaviors"?

[Bust Nak]

Scientific research shows that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival?

Your thoughts?

I think it's very easy to make a case that seeing intentions even where there are none ("that rock on the ledge is trying to crush me! I better not walk under it") And that beliefs in a higher power is a side effect of that mechanism.

[ThatGirlAgain]

The tie in to survival is the speculation that in primitive cultures having a whole community achieve this kind of state could foster the idea of the community as a real thing. This would lead to individuals being more willing to work more on behalf of the community and less for themselves as well as allowing the introduction of a common set of behavioral rules. These are definitely survival tools in a species so ill equipped for solitary living as ours is. This was presumably the original and to at least some extent still the purpose of religion.

But is speculation science?

We see community behavior in many animals species, as well as "pecking orders", and it even appears that communities of animals recognize certain behavioral "rules". Obviously they don't have these written down or think about them in terms of language, but they seem to know what's "right or wrong" behavior within their group.

So should we conclude that these animals species believe in a "higher power" in order to be able to form their "community behaviors"?

The mental states investigated by Newman do not necessarily involve any higher power. That is an elaboration that comes later. In the most primitive religions the gods are not actually worshipped. For example, in the various religions of the Indigenous Australians, the gods made the world but they went away long ago. The sense of community and acceptance of its precepts derives from the Dreamtime experience, which sounds suspiciously like the mental states described by Newman.

The idea of personal gods as the source of behavioral requirements seems to appear when societies get too big for everyone to know each other. The community is now too large a thing to be experienced as a concrete entity. Enforcement by peer pressure is no longer sufficiently effective. A supernatural entity is needed as the source of the rules, which are usually transmitted through the king or officially authorized priests. Commonly shared rituals and symbols are part of these rules and help enforce the perception of a larger community.

And so religion as we know it is born.

But to return to your original comment: I wonder to what extent some animals may have neurological equipment comparable to what humans utilize. All of the ‘pieces’ Newman describes are fully present in the higher mammals except the overly developed neo-cortex found in humans. We say that animals behave certain ways by instinct but this is simply a label for some particular mechanism, probably of the brain, that we may or may not be able to describe. Might the Newman mechanism be found in some social species such as primates, maybe even dogs? I am not suggesting the assignment of human characteristics to animals but rather that some ‘human’ characteristics may have been inherited from animal ancestors. But this crazy outgrowth we call religion is surely a human idiosyncrasy.

[Artie]

We see community behavior in many animals species, as well as "pecking orders", and it even appears that communities of animals recognize certain behavioral "rules". Obviously they don't have these written down or think about them in terms of language, but they seem to know what's "right or wrong" behavior within their group.

So should we conclude that these animals species believe in a "higher power" in order to be able to form their "community behaviors"?

1. Organisms that cooperated had better chances of survival.
2. Cooperation developed a common set of codes called morals.
3. As we developed these morals were expanded upon and put into words and incorporated into judicial systems and religions.

"findings support the idea that the brain has evolved to be sensitive to any form of belief that improves the chances of survival, which could explain why a belief in God and the supernatural became so widespread in human evolutionary history."

Religion is a way of reinforcing the morals evolution gave us so as to enhance our chances of survival. It's the survival instinct gone bananas. It's no coincidence that Christianity's major attraction is eternal happy life.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 41022.html

[Divine Insight]

Religion is a way of reinforcing the morals evolution gave us so as to enhance our chances of survival. It's the survival instinct gone bananas. It's no coincidence that Christianity's major attraction is eternal happy life.

I won't argue with that one iota. In fact, I actually hold that magical and mystical thinking have very pragmatic value even in a secular world.

I find it a bit strange that you would support this line of thinking though, partly because I saw on your post that you have joined the group "Against Magical Thinking", but now you seem to be supporting scientific reasons why such beliefs might actually have practically benefits (even if they are only wishful thinking).

I agree that a belief in a spiritual essence to reality can indeed have positive practical benefits. Unfortunately, as we see all too vividly today, these beliefs have taken a quite negative direction in the Abrahamic Religions, specifically in Christianity and Islam where they don't merely believe in an eternal happy life, but they also preach hatred and rejection by their respective Gods toward anyone who doesn't happen to believe in the God in the precisely the same way they do.

So ironically, what may have started out as a potentially beneficial thing has unfortunately deteriorated into the cause of religious "Holy Wars" whether carried out with actual weapons of destruction, or just via emotional insults being cast toward non-believer of specific jealous Gods.

In other words, this is an area where something may have evolved that was beneficial in some ways, but ultimately became a cancer as it continued to evolve.

[derwood]

"Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival."

Scientific research shows that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival?

Your thoughts?

Sounds like some evolutionary psychology mumbo jumbo.

[Peter]

"Scientists say they have located the parts of the brain that control religious faith. And the research proves, they contend, that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival."

Scientific research shows that belief in a higher power is an evolutionary asset that helps human survival?

Your thoughts?

I have no doubt that god belief was beneficial to mankind in the remote past. Belief in Santa Claus is beneficial to many children too.

Is a continued belief in gods beneficial to mankind is the question we need to ask ourselves now. Time to grow up mankind.