Closed Why we are born to believe in God?

[uploader74]

Why we are born to believe in God: It's wired into the brain, says psychologist

Humans are programmed to believe in God because it gives them a better chance of survival, researchers claim.

A study into the way children's brains develop suggests that during the process of evolution those with religious tendencies began to benefit from their beliefs - possibly by working in groups to ensure the future of their community.

The findings of Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, suggest that magical and supernatural beliefs are hardwired into our brains from birth, and that religions are therefore tapping into a powerful psychological force.

His work is supported by other researchers who have found evidence linking religious feelings and experience to particular regions of the brain.
They suggest people are programmed to receive a feeling of spirituality from electrical activity in these areas.
The findings challenge atheists such as Richard Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion, who has long argued that religious beliefs result from poor education and childhood 'indoctrination'.

Professor Hood believes it is futile to try to get people to abandon their beliefs because these come from such a 'fundamental level'.
'Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world works,' he said.

'As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion.'
The professor, who will present his findings at the British Science Association's annual meeting this week, sees organized religion as just part of a spectrum of supernatural beliefs.

In one study he found even ardent atheists balked at the idea of accepting an organ transplant from a murderer, because of a superstitious belief that an individual's personality could be stored in his or her organs. To reinforce his point, Professor Hood produced a blue cardigan during a lecture and invited the audience to put it on, for a £10 reward. This prompted a sea of raised hands to volunteer. He then said that the notorious murderer Fred West wore the cardigan, causing most to put their hand down. Although it was merely a stunt - the cardigan was not West's - the professor said this showed that even the most rational of people can be irrationally made to feel uncomfortable.

Another experiment involved asking subjects to cut up a treasured photograph. When his team then measured their sweat production - which is what lie-detector tests monitor - there was a jump in the reading. This did not occur when destroying an object of less sentimental significance.

'This shows how superstition is hardwired into our brains,' he added.

The Rev Michael Reiss, professor of science education at London University's Institute of Education and an Anglican priest, said he saw no reason why such research should undermine religious belief. 'We are evolved creatures and the whole point about humanity is that we are rooted in the natural world.'

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[Phc - T-T]

Salamat sa info! Keep sharing

 

[uploader74]

thanks for reading,
Christian ka po?

 

[jayendecastro]

Can you elaborate more on this:

'Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world works,' he said.

'As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion.'

 

[jayendecastro]

And what Mr. Hood said in an interview:

You moved quite quickly from talking about magical thinking to talking about religious belief. For a lot of people those are quite distinct areas.

Bruce Hood: Yes. It’s funny isn’t it? That they should draw that distinction. But of course religion is just organized supernatural thinking. Every religion has to have entities who have supernatural powers. And I think part of that works because of the pool of the supernatural. There’s something which transcends the mundane and so it has to have supernatural qualities. But religions are just organized structures. They’re narratives about the beginnings of the universe, the ends of the universe, and why we’re on this planet, where we go when we’re dead. They’re just stories to some extent, but are punctuated with and require these belief systems; whereas people who can be non-religious and yet still believe in a whole variety of supernatural things. So I think the difference is only one is organized supernatural thinking, the other is just spontaneous belief systems.

To what degree do you think that these sorts of patterns of thinking are learned through a process of conditioning? We learn about causes and effects, disgust and so on. Or perhaps they are are due to sort of innate patterns due to things that have happened in the Pleistocene?

Bruce Hood: So this is the tension, is it all learned, or is it indoctrination? If you’re Richard Dawkins then you’ll argue it’s indoctrination. Or is there a natural inclination? I think as many things in psychology it’s a combination of the two.