Is God talking to us? Too many people believe in God for it to be an unfounded belief. I think there may be a scientific explanation for believing and that it warrants being thought about more thoroughly. Here goes: what Ill offer is an explanation of how people who believe in God are in fact responding to very persuasive evidence. Begin here: humans are social animals, hence they must get along with each other and must make collective plans which rely upon loyalty bonds between individuals. In short, sociality depends upon our ability to be loyal and to discover those who are disloyal. Good, now lets slightly change our understanding of what a human being is by thinking of a human being very much the way we think of a cell in our body: humans, after all are the cells of any social group, each cell containing a copy of the human DNA. Now consider what an advantage it would be to any society if it could effectively spot disloyal members, rogue (cancerous) cells, so to speak. Such a society competing with another not able to spot its disloyal members, would, over time, lose the competition for survival and be replaced by stronger societies, lets call them loyalty societies. Now remembering that we can conceive of loyalty societies as forming a species under Darwins criteria, each such society is then, analogously to a human being, able to reproduce - by division. The division would then tend to favour the survival of societies with strong loyalty mechanisms since they would be more successful all things equal. So, could there be a loyalty mechanism by means of which each loyalty society could effectively spot disloyal cells? Yes, of course, and it might well be a mechanism functioning below the level of consciousness like an endorphin does in some species. It might be an odour which the disloyal member would exude, leaving a trail of human beings suspicious of his/her actions. Notice that in our bodies cells can attack cells which are regarded as harmful simply by spotting the chemical signals by which they inadvertently reveal their disruptive function. Having found the cells an attack is organized to clear out the rogue cells. So, coming down to Earth, Im speculating whether it might not be that anti-social people reveal themselves as anti-social one way or another, that this revelation is not voluntary nor controlled, and that loyal members of the group can then gang up on the threatening disloyal member and clear him/her out. He/she wouldnt be able to explain their exclusion, and the other members might not be able to say how they have spotted the disloyal one. It might be just a matter of sensing that someone is disloyal. Note: the process would not have to be fail-safe to be effective in giving one society an advantage over the other. Just speculating! So how would it seem to the disloyal member? It would seem that they were being punished for something (perhaps their disloyalty!) even though they had not shared their thoughts with anyone, ever. Suddenly, as they planned the disloyal act, they would find themselves being mysteriously shunned. Denied jobs, denied favours, denied justice, denied any or all the privileges due to a member of their society, they would feel punished by forces unseen!! Read : Gods anger. And, on the other hand, if there was a subliminal smell surrounding a highly loyal member the process could work in reverse and this super-loyal member would find ask and it shall be given was the rule of the day. It would seem as if their place in society was being created and defended by a force unseen! Read: Gods blessing. But it could go way beyond little favours and brief encounters. Our brain, being a social brain, could well be constructed to punish us for antisocial thought and actions. It could do so by inducing illness both physical and psychological, rendering the disloyal member ineffective. A society constructed from such self-punishers would have a distinct advantage over a society not enjoying such sophistication and such a society could reproduce by division making the advantageous trait inheritable. Someone living inside such a society would come to sense that they were being watched by a moral force. And they would be right: each persons brain would in fact be watching for social and anti-social behavior and betraying the state of its humans intentions to other members of society so that they could protect themselves from that person or, conversely, exploit his/her true loyalty traits. Not only would it seem exactly as if we are being watched, it would seem as if we are being rewarded and punished for our most secret plans, thoughts and actions. The force would then be conceived as we conceive of a personal God. Finally, the human brain might well have developed a power to talk to this internal censor, asking for help in being more loyal, grieving for his/her trespasses, and begging forgiveness. Such a brain might well be designed to cut some slack for such reformable persons, and all this may account for the power of prayer. Such a persons brain might secretly broadcast the promise of reform and stay the actions of other offended humans, perhaps ending the induced illness (paralysis?) which would seem like a miracle, a medical miracle. There we are. This all suggests a legitimate explanation for the belief in God. Indeed, would it not be obdurate for anyone in such circumstances to deny at least that it is a matter of common sense to believe in God? Finally this. It does not matter whether my little explanation is true or not, just given that this could be the case, given that such explanations are possible, that is, explanations consistent with evidence based reasoning, the point is made that belief in God may well be a most subtle and wise approach to life, and, indeed, one which may well be explained consistently with good, conventional science. It remains only to say how, among other things, this speculation (a Gedanken experiment) shows how our moral sense might get its start, and how it might be reinforced and, ultimately, enforced. And it shows how we can respect, admire, and love, those who do believe.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 04:15:53 +0000
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