Re: Let it RIP
Originally Posted by
j44ke
I've been reading some brain science essays (mostly in the New York Review of Books but also things my father sends me occasionally from Science) that talk about the relationship between the brain and religion. That religion is not merely a product of our imaginations but the way the brain actually works. The whole concept of agency, that something has animus contained within it, a soul or spirit or motivating force, may be an expression of our anticipatory brain. Humans develop an understanding that when something disappears from view that it isn't gone. A lot of baby games are based on this early blind-spot in cognition and its development. This brain development is very important to humans because we are so frickin' slow, relative to the animals (i.e. protein) that we really love to eat. The anticipatory brain allowed our ancestors to watch a gazelle run through a thicket, and even though they couldn't see it, they could anticipate where it would come out and triangulate into position for the short-range, high probability kill, rather than deciding it was gone when it disappeared and missing out on a nice meal. That anticipatory brain function is so intense, however, that it can inject animus into inanimate objects or agency into things that act on behavioral impulse. Stones that take on spiritual meaning, dogs who talk to us and display anthropomorphic behavior, and events which have a deeper meaning beyond their just-the-facts narratives. If you've ever seen a bird or animal go into a small bush and then can't find it even though the bush is small enough you can see all around it and be sure it didn't escape, your brain really has a hard time allowing you to believe the bird or whatever is indeed gone. Replace the bush with grandma and the bird with life-force and add in this tenaciously powerful anticipatory brain, and you have the basis for belief in a soul. The thing that is grandma that was in this body cannot possibly be gone because I didn't see it leave. And because that sense of agency in other things is so basic to our survival, the things that seem to threaten the validity of that sense are the most difficult to accept and the things that affirm that sense are the most profoundly affective. Science vs. Religion. Huge simplification of a very complex system that results in a variety of outcomes, but that's the gist of the study as I understand it.
Wait, what were we talking about?
Science, religion, soul... and shared cells. The comments are also good: https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...-mothers-brain
"Old and standing in the way of progress"
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