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Botnst · #1 03-05-2009, 08:26 AM

Born believers: How your brain creates God

04 February 2009 by Michael Brooks

WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.

This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.

Religious ideas are common to all cultures: like language and music, they seem to be part of what it is to be human. Until recently, science has largely shied away from asking why. "It's not that religion is not important," says Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, "it's that the taboo nature of the topic has meant there has been little progress."

The origin of religious belief is something of a mystery, but in recent years scientists have started to make suggestions. One leading idea is that religion is an evolutionary adaptation that makes people more likely to survive and pass their genes onto the next generation. In this view, shared religious belief helped our ancestors form tightly knit groups that cooperated in hunting, foraging and childcare, enabling these groups to outcompete others. In this way, the theory goes, religion was selected for by evolution, and eventually permeated every human society (New Scientist, 28 January 2006, p 30)

The religion-as-an-adaptation theory doesn't wash with everybody, however. As anthropologist Scott Atran of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor points out, the benefits of holding such unfounded beliefs are questionable, in terms of evolutionary fitness. "I don't think the idea makes much sense, given the kinds of things you find in religion," he says. A belief in life after death, for example, is hardly compatible with surviving in the here-and-now and propagating your genes. Moreover, if there are adaptive advantages of religion, they do not explain its origin, but simply how it spread.

An alternative being put forward by Atran and others is that religion emerges as a natural by-product of the way the human mind works.

That's not to say that the human brain has a "god module" in the same way that it has a language module that evolved specifically for acquiring language. Rather, some of the unique cognitive capacities that have made us so successful as a species also work together to create a tendency for supernatural thinking. "There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired," says Bloom.

Much of that evidence comes from experiments carried out on children, who are seen as revealing a "default state" of the mind that persists, albeit in modified form, into adulthood. "Children the world over have a strong natural receptivity to believing in gods because of the way their minds work, and this early developing receptivity continues to anchor our intuitive thinking throughout life," says anthropologist Justin Barrett of the University of Oxford.

So how does the brain conjure up gods? One of the key factors, says Bloom, is the fact that our brains have separate cognitive systems for dealing with living things - things with minds, or at least volition - and inanimate objects.

This separation happens very early in life. Bloom and colleagues have shown that babies as young as five months make a distinction between inanimate objects and people. Shown a box moving in a stop-start way, babies show surprise. But a person moving in the same way elicits no surprise. To babies, objects ought to obey the laws of physics and move in a predictable way. People, on the other hand, have their own intentions and goals, and move however they choose.

Mind and matter

Bloom says the two systems are autonomous, leaving us with two viewpoints on the world: one that deals with minds, and one that handles physical aspects of the world. He calls this innate assumption that mind and matter are distinct "common-sense dualism". The body is for physical processes, like eating and moving, while the mind carries our consciousness in a separate - and separable - package. "We very naturally accept you can leave your body in a dream, or in astral projection or some sort of magic," Bloom says. "These are universal views."

There is plenty of evidence that thinking about disembodied minds comes naturally. People readily form relationships with non-existent others: roughly half of all 4-year-olds have had an imaginary friend, and adults often form and maintain relationships with dead relatives, fictional characters and fantasy partners. As Barrett points out, this is an evolutionarily useful skill. Without it we would be unable to maintain large social hierarchies and alliances or anticipate what an unseen enemy might be planning. "Requiring a body around to think about its mind would be a great liability," he says.

Useful as it is, common-sense dualism also appears to prime the brain for supernatural concepts such as life after death. In 2004, Jesse Bering of Queen's University Belfast, UK, put on a puppet show for a group of pre-school children. During the show, an alligator ate a mouse. The researchers then asked the children questions about the physical existence of the mouse, such as: "Can the mouse still be sick? Does it need to eat or drink?" The children said no. But when asked more "spiritual" questions, such as "does the mouse think and know things?", the children answered yes.

more at: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941.700-born-believers-how-your-brain-creates-god.html?full=true (click on "skip" on bottom=right)

sfloriII · #2 03-05-2009, 10:19 AM

This would help exlain how/why Hollywood stars are created too.

kerry · #3 03-05-2009, 10:21 AM

Haven't read the whole piece yet, but I think to get a good handle on the brain processes that generated early human 'religion' you'd have to do scans and closely examine the brains of humans in completely illiterate cultures. I think reading and writing might rewire the brain enough to cover up what was going on originally. Not many people left in the world upon whom one could conduct investigations. I'd just like to see the results in general of brains scans of literate vs. illiterate humans.

JonL · #4 03-05-2009, 10:24 AM

Interesting post. Thanks.

jt20 · #5 03-05-2009, 11:46 AM

It troubles me when all relevance for a particular topic is tied to evolution. The simple cop-out, the one theory that everyone can rely on, association with the powerful automatically grants power to the associated.

Religion is not "a human disposition" or "natural inclination" simply because 'we do it'. The 'religious' hominid of the early ages was not selected by the bevy of females he encountered because he 'believed in a god' or practiced a religion.
The ability for abstract thought correlates to brain development positively. The 'smarter' ones, the ones who ' got by' in the forest, were therefore more likely to have the ability to think abstractly.
The prerequisite to belief in a religion is abstract thought. Religion is a means to remove oneself from a current state.

kerry · #6 03-05-2009, 01:06 PM

I think figuring out exactly what 'religion' is, is no easy task. I think the kind of religion we have in large literate urban societies is quite different than the kind of religion found in small illiterate tribal groups. The general consensus is that primal religion does not involve removing oneself from the current state. It involves binding oneself to one's land and one's relations.
I can see how religion would be a side effect of some other evolutionary brain development that helped humans adapt but I don't think that would mean that it was any less an evolutionary development.

jt20 · #7 03-05-2009, 01:25 PM

then all thought, all invention, all creations, are the product of evolution. I am simply saying evolution is too broad a topic to pin every little instance to. Nothing is achieved except making a logical argument for the plausibility of the argument.

Agreed, religion serves many purposes. In all instances, however, it is a tool. A construct intended to assist in achieving some goal. Or it, as evolution would say, would not last the test of time.

The goal can be just as abstract as the means to obtain it.

And herein lies the catch: How does man perceive a goal? Isn't the prerequisite for a goal an understanding of the workings of events?
Where does brain development precede itself?.... When did sub-conscious thought develop.. before or after the use of religion by man?

Botnst · #8 03-05-2009, 01:49 PM

Here's another way to look at the same evidence. Try it out.

I'm god (bear with me here). I created life. I want to talk to you folks (all lfe) through time regardless of evolutionary changes (yes, I'm god, I started evolution, FYI). What's my method?

jt20 · #9 03-05-2009, 01:53 PM

a v-chip

jt20 · #10 03-05-2009, 01:55 PM

or....

insert meaning into the environment. "everything in everything"

from nature we deduce the workings of life. It is an inert ingredient.

Botnst · #11 03-05-2009, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jt20

a v-chip

Yep, that's my hypothetical "it." Now let's say we're research scientists investigating this penchant for theistic beliefs and we discover this primitive brain function that indicates a predisposition to god-belief.

I like your pantheistic answer, too.

Etc.

jt20 · #12 03-05-2009, 02:05 PM

I would say that primitive function does other things as well. The brain is a cooperation, not a collection of segmented monopolies.

can I ask you what your profession is?

Botnst · #13 03-05-2009, 02:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jt20

I would say that primitive function does other things as well. The brain is a cooperation, not a collection of segmented monopolies.

can I ask you what your profession is?

Formerly plant taxonomist, now biogeographer. Mostly wetlands of the conterminous USA.

kerry · #14 03-05-2009, 03:48 PM

[QUOTE=Botnst;2130563]we discover this primitive brain function that indicates a predisposition to god-belief.
[QUOTE]

I object to the idea that it is a predisposition to god-belief. God belief, certaintly monotheistic God belief is not primitive, but seems to be a later development. Predisposition to diesmbodied beings belief seems to me to be a more likely root of religion than a narrower 'god module'. Animism is quite common in primitive human groups.

aklim · #15 03-05-2009, 04:26 PM

I think it is because mankind cannot bear the answer "I don't know". So, when faced with something beyond their explanation, the options are to say "I don't know" or make something up to have an answer.