(unwired) for God

[momentarylapseofreason]

After reading this article I think it may hold the answer as to why suffering is encouraged and held in high regard in most religions. LOL and frown. Misery makes for good business and creates control and while religious/spiritual beliefs offer psychological/emotional relief of course for believers.

At last check, intimations of mortality had not been banished from the human mindthe Grim Reaper still stalks our thoughts. Nor have our brain circuits shaken their habit of perceiving patterns in chaos, such as seeing the face of Jesus in a piece of burned toast; imagining the invisible hand of a supernatural agent in acts of randomness, as in "answered" prayers; and conjuring what anthropologist Pascal Boyer of Washington University calls "nonphysically present agents." We use the same circuitry to envision "what if" scenarios about our pasts or futures as we do to imagine angels and demons. Yet scientists have invoked both the fear of death and the fact that normal mental processes predispose us to belief in the supernatural to explain the near universality of religious faith down through the ages. (Of course, humans might believe in God because a deity designed that belief into our brains, but that hypothesis is not amenable to scientific investigation.) But there's nothing like facts to spoil a good story.

Before I get to the pesky new data, it's worth emphasizing that there are intriguing neurobiological findings suggesting that the brain may indeed be wired for God. In addition to the habits of thought that lead us to see the supernatural in the natural and the extraordinary in the ordinary, neuroimaging studies suggest that we come preloaded with the software for belief. For instance, the brain has a region, the parietal lobe, that detects where our body physically ends and the larger world begins. But this circuitry can be silenced by intense prayer or meditation, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg has found, producing a sense of oneness with the cosmos or God.

There is a common belief that if some trait or behavior is wired into the brain, it is unchangeable, inevitable. (The same goes for anything genetically based, but we'll leave that myth to another day.) Which makes the latest data on religiosity even more fascinating.

In brief, the number of American non-believers has doubled since 1990, a 2008 Pew survey found, and increased even more in some other advanced democracies. What's curious is not so much the overall decline of belief (which has caused the Vatican to lament the de-Christianization of Europe) as the pattern. In a paper last month in the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, Gregory Paul finds that countries with the lowest rates of social dysfunctionbased on 25 measures, including rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, unemployment, and povertyhave become the most secular. Those with the most dysfunction, such as Portugal and the U.S., are the most religious, as measured by self-professed belief, church attendance, habits of prayer, and the like.

I'll leave to braver souls the question of whether religiosity leads to social dysfunction, as the new breed of public atheists contends. More interesting is the fact that if social progress can snuff out religious belief in millions of people, as Paul notes, then one must question "the idea that religiosity and belief in the supernatural is the default mode of the brain," he told me. As he wrote in his new paper, "The ease with which large populations abandon serious theism when conditions are sufficiently benign . . . refute hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state." He posits that, rather than being wired into the brain, religion is a way to cope with stress in a dysfunctional societythe opium-of-the-people argument.

This doesn't have to be an either-or proposition, however. The brain may indeed be predisposed to supernatural beliefs. But that predisposition may need environmental input to be fully realized.

Something like that seems to explain a number of animal behaviors that have long been thought of as innate. For instance, ducks are supposedly wired to prefer their mother's call and not, say, a goose's. But in the egg, ducklings hear the sounds of their mother, their embryonic siblings, and themselves; deprived of those experiences, they do not exhibit the "hard-wired" imprinting. Similarly, studies seem to show that fish have an innate sense of geometric direction. But if the fish do not first explore their tank, their sense of direction stinks, suggesting that they acquire it and are not born with it. "Researchers sometimes claim we're hard-wired for things, but when you peel through the layers of the experiments, the details matter and suddenly the evidence doesn't seem so compelling," says psychologist John Spencer of the University of Iowa.

Before we decide that a behavior is innate and wired into our neurons, it would be a good idea to examine whether it withstands changes in our circumstances. If the new neuroscience has taught us anything, it's that the lives we lead can reach into, and change, our very brain circuitry.

Begley is the author of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.

© 2009

http://www.newsweek.com/id/211746

Edited November 4, 2009 by momentarylapseofreason

[Omnaka]

After reading this article I think it may hold the answer as to why suffering is encouraged and held in high regard in most religions. LOL and frown. Misery makes for good business and creates control and while religious/spiritual beliefs offer psychological/emotional relief of course for believers.

At last check, intimations of mortality had not been banished from the human mind—the Grim Reaper still stalks our thoughts. Nor have our brain circuits shaken their habit of perceiving patterns in chaos, such as seeing the face of Jesus in a piece of burned toast; imagining the invisible hand of a supernatural agent in acts of randomness, as in "answered" prayers; and conjuring what anthropologist Pascal Boyer of Washington University calls "non–physically present agents." We use the same circuitry to envision "what if" scenarios about our pasts or futures as we do to imagine angels and demons. Yet scientists have invoked both the fear of death and the fact that normal mental processes predispose us to belief in the supernatural to explain the near universality of religious faith down through the ages. (Of course, humans might believe in God because a deity designed that belief into our brains, but that hypothesis is not amenable to scientific investigation.) But there's nothing like facts to spoil a good story.

Before I get to the pesky new data, it's worth emphasizing that there are intriguing neurobiological findings suggesting that the brain may indeed be wired for God. In addition to the habits of thought that lead us to see the supernatural in the natural and the extraordinary in the ordinary, neuroimaging studies suggest that we come preloaded with the software for belief. For instance, the brain has a region, the parietal lobe, that detects where our body physically ends and the larger world begins. But this circuitry can be silenced by intense prayer or meditation, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg has found, producing a sense of oneness with the cosmos or God.

There is a common belief that if some trait or behavior is wired into the brain, it is unchangeable, inevitable. (The same goes for anything genetically based, but we'll leave that myth to another day.) Which makes the latest data on religiosity even more fascinating.

In brief, the number of American non-believers has doubled since 1990, a 2008 Pew survey found, and increased even more in some other advanced democracies. What's curious is not so much the overall decline of belief (which has caused the Vatican to lament the de-Christianization of Europe) as the pattern. In a paper last month in the online journal Evolutionary Psychology, Gregory Paul finds that countries with the lowest rates of social dysfunction—based on 25 measures, including rates of homicide, abortion, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, unemployment, and poverty—have become the most secular. Those with the most dysfunction, such as Portugal and the U.S., are the most religious, as measured by self-professed belief, church attendance, habits of prayer, and the like.

I'll leave to braver souls the question of whether religiosity leads to social dysfunction, as the new breed of public atheists contends. More interesting is the fact that if social progress can snuff out religious belief in millions of people, as Paul notes, then one must question "the idea that religiosity and belief in the supernatural is the default mode of the brain," he told me. As he wrote in his new paper, "The ease with which large populations abandon serious theism when conditions are sufficiently benign . . . refute hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state." He posits that, rather than being wired into the brain, religion is a way to cope with stress in a dysfunctional society—the opium-of-the-people argument.

This doesn't have to be an either-or proposition, however. The brain may indeed be predisposed to supernatural beliefs. But that predisposition may need environmental input to be fully realized.

Something like that seems to explain a number of animal behaviors that have long been thought of as innate. For instance, ducks are supposedly wired to prefer their mother's call and not, say, a goose's. But in the egg, ducklings hear the sounds of their mother, their embryonic siblings, and themselves; deprived of those experiences, they do not exhibit the "hard-wired" imprinting. Similarly, studies seem to show that fish have an innate sense of geometric direction. But if the fish do not first explore their tank, their sense of direction stinks, suggesting that they acquire it and are not born with it. "Researchers sometimes claim we're hard-wired for things, but when you peel through the layers of the experiments, the details matter and suddenly the evidence doesn't seem so compelling," says psychologist John Spencer of the University of Iowa.

Before we decide that a behavior is innate and wired into our neurons, it would be a good idea to examine whether it withstands changes in our circumstances. If the new neuroscience has taught us anything, it's that the lives we lead can reach into, and change, our very brain circuitry.

Begley is the author of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.

© 2009

http://www.newsweek.com/id/211746

My knowledge about the Love which created me, is innate, so is the faith, that what I say is true. This knowledge has been tested (By me) time and time again throughout my life.

I think the lives we lead are the lives we wish to lead and experience.

Brain- washing aside.

Freewill rules!

Love Omnaka

[eight bits]

It is very diffcult to post on a subject like this without being seen as posting "in opposition" to the views of people like V.. (to name one).

But the article linked illustrates that within "matter in motion" accounts of cognition, there is a real controversy between those who emphasize the plasticity of the cognitive apparatus, and those to whom the term "hardwired" comes easily to the tongue.

So, MLOR, I do thank you for the link.

And Brother O, in his gentle and insightful way, reminds us of another aspect of the problem. Cognition is a complicated phenomenon. It admits of many levels of description, from the dance of molecules to dialog with God, with several levels in between.

Whether or not we ever succeed in accurately and completely describing cognition using only one of the levels, and, if so, whether that one level is the dance of molecules - nobody knows, and bigger than hell, we haven't done anything like that yet.

In the meantime, it can only help to remember that one step up from the molecules, there is biological tissue. We need an appreciation of both how much the tissue's innate organization contributes to our experience of ourselves, and also how much results from the tissue organizing and reorganizing itself throughout life.

[randomhit10]

hi there MLR...how have you been?...and how is life on the worlds greatest beaches?

as you know i am am believer in Jesus...and after much study i have come to the conclusion that suffering is a man made idea taken from some scriptures that have been bent somewhat to preform a different end and not the real meaning...i do not believe that we are supposed to suffer at all...that we should rejoice in every waking moment of this life...i have had all the suffering i need before i came to know Jesus...now i bask in the warmth of answered prayers, i can deal with life from a position of power and not as a victim...there may a scientific name for this i am living but i like it so much better than before, that if i am deluded then don't wake me up....lol

randomhit10

Edited November 5, 2009 by randomhit10

[Mr Walker]

I agree with the OP.

Human "nature" is both hardwired and malleable.

The propensity for belief is almost certainly an evolved condition of human sapience.

Human sapience allows us to override our most hard wired biological and genetic responses.

So spirituality and religiousity can be overriden by the power of the mind. And they can also be reinforced by it.

Of course, all of this is irrelevant to/disconnected from, the question of whether god is a real physical and objective entity, or simply a construct of sapience.

It, almost certainly, is both.

[Chauncy]

After reading this article I think it may hold the answer as to why suffering is encouraged and held in high regard in most religions.

I'm taking a snippit from the gist. I'm offering a snippit in return: If something is held in high regard then it is most certainly sought after.

There is a core value that I've absorbed to the extent that instead of wishing for the things that I want and don't have.I'm greatful for the things I don't have that I don't want.

[momentarylapseofreason]

It is very diffcult to post on a subject like this without being seen as posting "in opposition" to the views of people like V.. (to name one).

Well, I'm hoping V. will come here and have a look. I'm curious as to some input from her, because she seems to be quite knowledgeable and offers more than personal opinions. This is just looking at it from a diffrent perspective/angle and and bit in reverse. The article/author does make some good observations.

I personally think/or my opinion is that our "wiring" is formed through 4 major influences/parts>> 1)first physically/ genes (set traits/weaknesses/strengths before outside influences), or later damage/trauma/illness, 2) parental and or strong/direct familial influences during childhood (which motivates alot of subconscious behavior), 3) close social ties/ friendships (seems to yield most influence during puberty/young adulthood, seems to shape alot of our outward/visible behavior 4) intellectual input & outside/indirect influence (such education/media/cultural influences)and as we mature we often become more analytical, rational and start sifting & sorting through the information and impressions we have aquired to ascertain what is useful or of value and what to discard/ignore. These 4 seem to form the whole. Maybe 5) is the spiritual but of course I feel it ties into the subconscious, and is inspired by fear, loss, grief, a feeling of emptiness (of which we all experience). Spirituality/Religion (not really or always the same thing) can or does soothe the pain, gives hope, fills the void, offers a sense of justice, direction & stability for many. So it appears to be.

Edited November 7, 2009 by momentarylapseofreason

[momentarylapseofreason]

hi there MLR...how have you been?...and how is life on the worlds greatest beaches?

as you know i am am believer in Jesus...and after much study i have come to the conclusion that suffering is a man made idea taken from some scriptures that have been bent somewhat to preform a different end and not the real meaning...i do not believe that we are supposed to suffer at all...that we should rejoice in every waking moment of this life...i have had all the suffering i need before i came to know Jesus...now i bask in the warmth of answered prayers, i can deal with life from a position of power and not as a victim...there may a scientific name for this i am living but i like it so much better than before, that if i am deluded then don't wake me up....lol

randomhit10

Nice to hear from you! I'm going to PM you this weekend.