The Need for Religion

What purposes does religion serve? Does that question leave you cold?

What we do, including what we think, always serves purposes, for better or worse. We don't just do things for no reason. We don't just believe things for no reason. In the final analysis, virtually everything we do and think and feel is connected to survival. Our brains evolved to be prolifically adaptive so that we might survive more easily than many, but not all, animals. And of course, all behaviors simultaneously serve more than one purpose.

The answer to why we have beliefs in the supernatural is complicated by the complexities that are sequellae to our neocortex and its abilities. We can imagine, we can reflect, and we can hypothesize: all skills that apparently no other animal can do in any great amount, although I may be guilty of gross oversimplification as well as species centrism.

Survival, of course, is not solely a function of a thicker cortex. If anything, higher brain functions tend to diminish survival behaviors. The cockroach will persist long after we are gone.

But we have much in the way of pathologies that exist because of this neocortex and its skills. One of these is narcissism. In and of itself, narcissism has gotten a bad reputation. We are all narcissistic, or should be. There is a continuum of self-interest from healthy look-after-yourself and do what's best to survive and flourish, all the way to malignant and destructive narcissism, wherein everything is done to get one's needs met at the expense of everyone else's, a kind of "f**k you" disorder (there are a few others; another is antisocial personality disorder.)

Very psychologically and socially healthy people do things that allow them to not just survive, but also flourish in a socially relativistic fashion: they usually do things that not only don't hinder or harm others, but they are also mindful to assist others in reaching their goals whenever possible. At the highest frequency of these exhibited behaviors, few are in this category. Do "religious" people exhibit more pro social behaviors? I bet not.

What about religion itself? In some ways it's a narcissistic product. In other ways, it is a natural byproduct of ignorance and fear. Yet another explanation is that religion is at its core a way to pretend we won't simply become worm food when we die; an existential anxiety reduction method. As I see it religion serves many purposes:

1. to affiliate with others socially and cognitively
2. to bring about certainty and therefore hope and optimism in the face of certain demise

3. to justify behaviors

4. to obtain gratification and esteem by others

5. to clarify and organize one's cognitions

6. to reduce the need to be self-determined (an inconvenient position)

7. to explain the unanswerable; to satisfy curiosity

So, I want to look at these.

Items to Ponder

I awoke this AM with thoughts to convey:

1.  A theory is a well-organized, extremely well-tested system that explains observed phenomena. We use the word extremely casually, and I am sure the average person has no idea that when you are confronted with a true theory, you are in the midst of a very sophisticated collection of hypotheses and explanations. A theory is high level; it is not just what you think at the moment about something, which is its most common mis-usage. We ought to be using the word "hypothesis" instead.

There are "big" theories and there are "little" ones. Most are small, specific and not necessarily connected to bigger pictures. Big ones include Einstein's relativity theories, Freud's theory of mind, and the theory of Evolution. Most of the big theories are well-tested by perhaps tens of thousands of experiments, although Freud's is unable to be directly tested using scientific experimentation. The theory of evolution, despite what those who would deny it, is so well-tested that it is incontrovertible in most of it's parts. Good theories predict well and are widely applicable: the theory of evolution is a good theory.

Evolution, while officially labeled a theory, is actually so consistently shown to be predictive and accurate at all levels of investigation, that most scientists refer to it as fact.  Even the last pope stated he believed that evolution and the "bible" are not contradictory. How could they be? Seems to me the bible is a theory about the beginnings and procession of life. But it is an unreliable one, not more than  Freud's, because it is not in any way testable or predictive. Faith is not science.

Science is a system of knowing, and religion is about conjuring faith and belief. If science was about faith, we would have none of the gadgets, conveniences, many of the necessities (like vaccines), and few of the fun things we enjoy. If faith was science, we could test it in ways other than simply deciding that our faith is measured in our withstanding trials and tribulations.

2.   Well, anyway, I am glad that some people have more positive energy because of religion. I think some people need a system of rules to be productive, to live a good life, to treat others fairly and justly. I have no desire to take that from them. The world would soon descend into chaos! Religion, as with anything else, can be an agent of good or far less. Sometimes religion is about control and the greed of church leaders. It's also sometimes about the need for nations to justify their horrific treatment of their citizens or of other nations.

What would the world be like if the money spent of church edifices and "missions" and the lining of leaders' pockets all went to helping the poor and disadvantaged directly? Isn't that what God (if you believe in her) would want?