Are we hard-wired to believe in God?
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I was raised to be a skeptic. My parents encouraged me to question everything. As a result, at an early age I became aware that I was an outsider. I found it hard to fully embrace any particular belief system unless all my questions could be answered, and they seldom were.
At the same time, I knew I believed in a spiritual side to life. Too many emotions we feel, love-hate-joy-depression-wonder-boredom-ennui, had a direct and real impact on our daily lives yet lack any physical explanation. To deny the spiritual seemed like folly to me. Yet as I explored religion after religion, new-age to ancient, I found that I couldn’t accept the notion of god in any form. The gods were answers to questions that mystified us in the past. These days, there are fewer and fewer reasons to suppose gods. In other words, I’m an atheist as it relates to both religion (I don’t accept religion’s concept of god) and philosophy (I don’t perceive the need to suppose gods exist).
Lately I’ve begun to notice that others, often neuro-scientists and physicists, are also seeking answers to why we humans seem determined to believe in some sort of higher power. Some suggest we might be hard-wired to believe in gods.
The New York Times Magazine has a fascinating article about all this entitled Darwin’s God. If this subject interests you as much as it does me, click on over and give it a read. Then give it some thought.
Lost in the hullabaloo over the neo-atheists is a quieter and potentially more illuminating debate. It is taking place not between science and religion but within science itself, specifically among the scientists studying the evolution of religion. These scholars tend to agree on one point: that religious belief is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved during early human history. What they disagree about is why a tendency to believe evolved, whether it was because belief itself was adaptive or because it was just an evolutionary byproduct, a mere consequence of some other adaptation in the evolution of the human brain.
Which is the better biological explanation for a belief in God — evolutionary adaptation or neurological accident? Is there something about the cognitive functioning of humans that makes us receptive to belief in a supernatural deity? And if scientists are able to explain God, what then? Is explaining religion the same thing as explaining it away? Are the nonbelievers right, and is religion at its core an empty undertaking, a misdirection, a vestigial artifact of a primitive mind? Or are the believers right, and does the fact that we have the mental capacities for discerning God suggest that it was God who put them there?
In short, are we hard-wired to believe in God? And if we are, how and why did that happen?
[tags]religious belief, evolution, biology, genetics, New York Times[/tags]
3 Comments
Tom Farley
March 5th, 2007
at 11:02am
I’m glad that you are at least open to seeking the truth. I am a Born-again Christian. My conversion came when I was 18 years old. I’ve been “saved” for 25 years now.
I certainly won’t pretend that I can answer your questions, not most of them anyway. What I can tell you is that based on my personal experience, Jesus Christ is truly God and there is no doubt that He is real. I can’t even offer you proof, unless you are willing to try to reach out to God yourself.
Since the day I became a believer in Christ, I have had a real relationship with God. He is not silent or absent as some think. I know this is going to sound down right zany to many, but I do talk to God, and yes, He does speak back. If you’re finished rolling your eyes now, I’d like to continue. I can’t give you physical proof, but I can tell you that there is physical proof of God.
I was just like everyone else once. I swore, I drank heavily, etc. But I am telling you that if you really want to know if God is real, just ask Him. If you can just put skepticism aside long enough to truly and sincerely entertain the possibility that Jesus could be God, then He can prove himself to you.
The problem is that most people are deluded into thinking that going to church will get them into God’s good graces. Jesus said “He who believeth on me, should have eternal life”. Most people going to church believe in the church, not in Christ as their personal link to salvation. Jesus also said “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand”. Repent means to do an “about face” on your sin. Turn away from your sin and live according to God’s laws. Most people aren’t willing to give up their own pleasures to gain a relationship with God they can’t see.
Okay, back to the physical. I can’t explain it in scientific terms, but when I repented on October 24, 1981. There was a physical change in me. It was emotional for sure, but it was more than that. There was some change in my “heart” and in my mind that I can’t put into words, but very real just the same. It’s like coming alive all over again, which is why it’s referred to as “born-again”. And though many mock the “infilling of the Holy Spirit” that is very real as well. And also a real physical experience. Some people get scared at talk like this. Honestly, I don’t know why. If God is real and He wants to have a relationship with us, how can we expect it to be anything but good?
So I can’t prove it with scientific proofs, but the LORD is real- VERY real. If you just give Him the chance, He can prove He’s real to you too.
See, our two sides can have a reasonable talk without a bunch of yelling and name calling.
eldergeek
March 5th, 2007
at 12:32pm
Religion is one of those topics that requires real courage to discuss in public if your views happen to differ from the mainstream and it doesn’t get much more public than this. If you take any negative heat, point at me and imply that I’m a co-conspiritor. I’ll happily divert some of the negativity for you. I speak fluent theodoubletalkology (I assume I think therefore I assume I am thinking).
I made some comments about this most-volatile of topics on our website a few days ago in response to recent increased activity from the {humor}Jesus for President{/humor} crowd.
danceattakjg
October 18th, 2007
at 9:38am
if and when scientists track and reproduce spiritual feelings in the brain, that does not necessarily rule out the possibility that God is in lockstep with the physical, sending secret invisible messages to the brain that are untraceable by science, etc. I realized this after a debate with a theist and came to condlude that even 50 years from now people will still be waiting for jeebus.