Darwin's God

This is a fascinating artilce from the N.Y. Times.

Please read it and offer any reflections.

Of particular interest to me is the research referenced on page 4 about the evolution of religion that looks at how (as an effective  adaptation) the brain creates causality where there is in fact none and infers agency where there is in fact none, as well as our ablity to imagine other minds! We're still doing it….

Most of humanity still allows these three elements to congeal into the counter-intuitive belief in the supernatural - and it is damn hard for the brain to let go off!

That “letting go” is for me akin to a kind of existential initiation in which contemporary spirituality can be born.

This is fascinating research and intelligent discussion, check it out! :O)

~julian

Re: Darwin's God

Thanx for that Julian. I'm actually currently taking a course titled, “Human Origins,” in which we go into this. Again the reporter shows their ethnocentric thought by asking, “Are humans hardwired to believe in God?” Because, no anthropologist would ever ask this. The question is, “Are we hardwired for religious experience?” Which is an altogether different matter.
Religiousity does not imply a belief in any god, which Ken makes very clear and Dawkins et al. can't get past the superficial, outer shell. We would say that they can't, because they are as orange and orange gets.
I think we are hardwired for dualistic conception, which leads to a belief in magic, and a mythic god or gods. So, again, while Levi-Strauss makes this clear in his Structuralism, he and others, never find that thre are religious traditions whose so purpose is to get us past our dualistic thinking.

rick

Re: Darwin's God

beautifuly said rick!