the tragedy of human cognition
March 6th, 2007
atheism, epistemology, religion
Robin Henig writes a very engaging essay in the NYT Magazine entitled “Darwin’s God”. Given the popularity of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett, their books, and the ensuing attention in the media (especially the internet), the article is certainly timely. But as I read the article, I realized I was reading it from a point of view different than I might have after other readings and musings. When I read this, I had been musing over why those we elect to run our government propose various bills that seem superfluous or counter to a free society, etc. (such as laws against drinking coffee while driving, or adding a nickle tax to fuel oil to promote conservation) - why people think the way they do and why others disagree with them. The usual. Certainly religion, along with politics is a taboo subject at a cocktail party (do people still have cocktail parties?). But in this case, rather than attempting to find an explanation for religion in Henig’s article, I was reading it from a perspective of trying to understand why people think - one way or another - or not at all!
The Henig article explores the evolution of religion from a scientific perspective; i.e. Darwinian evolution. Is there a biological explanation for a belief in God?
Hardships of early human life favored the evolution of certain cognitive tools, among them the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm, to come up with causal narratives for natural events and to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions.
Henig outlines how adaptive selection enabled religion and a belief in God, one, many, or infact none at all. In essence, we’re hardwired to believe the things we do. We are hardwired to be Republicans, or Democrats, or Libertarians. We are hardwired to believe we can solve the world’s problems, or that the world’s problems are intractable.
Theory of mind - or folkpsychology as a concept is intriguing. It gives insight into factions, cliques, and self-regarding group behavior - favoring “group selection” … interesting.
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