Why
Rational People Have Irrational Beliefs.
The
Origin of Faith
Is human brain programmed to believe?
Why so many people cling to religion despite the
fact that they are unable to produce any evidence for what they believe?
This is indeed a fascinating subject. Is religious thinking genetic?
Some believe that just as there is a language center in human brain
enabling children to instinctively learn a language, there is a religion
center in the brain making us believers. Apparently this view is gaining
popularity among some neurobiologists as was reported in a recent
FrontPage feature on Newsweek (God and the Brain, May 7, 2001)
Could this be possibly true? If so then there is
little hope for our species to get rid of religion ever! If we are
genetically programmed to be religious then that is what we shall be.
What is religion? If we define religion as faith
(putting aside its sociopolitical aspects) then it is belief without
evidence. We do not believe nor we have faith in things for which we
have evidence. Things for
which we have evidence are things that we KNOW. Take the example of the
Bigfoot! Some believe that there is a humanoid living in the woods in
Saskatoon that has successfully avoided contact with humans. There is
nothing unscientific about this belief. Neanderthals were separated from
humans, they evolved into a distinct species, and they are assumed to be
extinct for at least 30,000 years. Could it be that a small group of
them has survived? Is it possible that another ramification of the
humanoids has evolved distinctly from humans and has survived up until
now? This is all possible. As very close relatives of us, if these
creatures exist, they must have huge brains and know the art of
survival. They know that humans have tools and can be (in fact are) very
dangerous. So it is logical to believe that they hide from us and that
is why we have not been able to capture anyone of them yet. However, the
evidence of the existence of the Bigfoot is scant. You are free to
believe or not to believe in the existence of such creature. But what
happens if someone captures a Bigfoot? At that time the evidence become
overwhelming and we no more “believe” but “know” that Bigfoot
exist. Here is the difference between knowing and believing. Things for
which we can produce evidence and are demonstrable by facts become part
of our knowledge. Things for which there is little evidence pertain to
the realm of the beliefs.
Faith is intense belief. It is the state of being
absolutely certain of things for which one has absolutely no evidence.
Is this engrained in our brain? Are we genetically wired to believe in
things without evidence? I do not believe that is the case. I do not
believe that faith or irrational thinking is programmed into our brain.
Then the question arises why so many people believe despite having no
evidence of what they believe?
The answer could lie in the way we evolve. The
growth and development of humanity can be likened to the growth of a
single individual comprising it. In the early stages of a child’s
growth the rational thinking is all but absent. Children are not
rational thinkers, they are magic thinkers. For a child logic has no
meaning and he has no need for it. Children believe in the omnipotence
of their parents and they need to believe that they are loved and taken
care of. This belief in the absolute power of the parent is essential
for the child’s sense of security. Through this belief he feels
protected and safe. He can rely on his all powerful and infallible
genitors who watch over him, provide for him, protect him and come to
his rescue in the moment of his needs. In this stage of evolution, there
is no need for reason. In fact reason could be even counterproductive.
Beliefs are more crucial than reason for the child’s survival. The
child needs to have absolute certainty that he will not be abandoned and
left to his own means. Only faith, and indeed blind faith in the parent
can provide such an absolute sense of security.
A child also needs to expand his imagination and he
needs to dream. He needs fairytales, myths and legends. Children are
magic thinkers. Magic thinking is necessary for the child’s emotional
well-being. The child has no difficulty to envision the animals with
human personalities and even inanimate objects like his toys, as living
sentient beings. He converses with his imaginary friends as if they were
real and is scared of the monster, the figment of his own fantasy, who
is hiding beneath his bed. In the moment that he feels weak, beaten and
defeated, when he is lonely, scared and vulnerable, he can pretend to be
a superman with unlimited powers. In his mind he can overcome his
oppressors, take revenge, beat them up and always win. He can be a hero,
fly and do other miracles all in his mind. His mind will compensate for
all his physical weaknesses by supplying him imaginary supernatural
powers. That is why when a child is still helpless and weak, magic
thinking is so crucial to his survival.
Children are very cruel to each other, just as our
ancestors were to each other. A child who is bullied by bigger boys can
take comfort by imagining that one day a powerful imaginary friend would
come to punish his oppressors. In his mind he would see his
enemies crushed. Our ancestors thought the same way. When the enemy
dealt with them cruelly and they had no one to come to their rescue,
when they were persecuted and aggrieved, they would plead to God
to come to their aid. They would imagine a Messiah who would come
to rescue them, who would take vengeance from their enemies and who
would rule with justice. The Psalms 35 is such desperate call for help.
1 A
psalm of David. O LORD, oppose those who oppose me. Declare war on
those who are attacking me. 2 Put on your armor,
and take up your shield. Prepare for battle, and come to my aid. 3 Lift
up your spear and javelin and block the way of my enemies. Let me hear
you say, "I am your salvation!" 4 Humiliate
and disgrace those trying to kill me; turn them back in confusion. 5 Blow
them away like chaff in the wind – a wind sent by the angel of the
LORD. 6 Make their path dark and slippery, with the
angel of the LORD pursuing them. 7 Although I did
them no wrong, they laid a trap for me. Although I did them no wrong,
they dug a pit for me. 8 So let sudden ruin
overtake them! Let them be caught in the snare they set for me! Let
them fall to destruction in the pit they dug for me. 9 Then
I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be glad because he rescues me. 10 I
will praise him from the bottom of my heart: "LORD, who can
compare with you? Who else rescues the weak and helpless from the
strong? Who else protects the poor and needy from those who want to
rob them?"
As the species, we humans pass the same stages of
growth of a single individual. In the early stages of our evolution we
needed to think magically. We needed fairytales. We needed to believe in
a powerful, omnipotent, omniscient heavenly father who looked over us,
who provided for us, who loved us and even sometimes punished us if we
were not good enough. We needed to believe in the power of prayers. In
our moments of loneliness, despair and troubles, we needed to believe
that we are not alone; that there is an amorous father somewhere in the
Heaven who loves us and who cares for us. We needed to believe that he
would never let us down. When we could no more rely on our own
resources, we still could rely on God. When we were oppressed and could
not reclaim our rights, we could believe that there is going to be
a Day of Reckoning when the wronged ones would be rewarded and the
oppressors would be punished. Even if this God was not real, its effect
on our psyche and emotional well-being was very real and indispensable.
When as a species we ate the fruit of the forbidden
tree of knowledge, when we were cast out of the paradise of
ignorance where all other animals live, when we became aware of our
nakedness, our helplessness and our loneliness, we looked first
for a mother god with unconditional love and later a father god with
conditional love to protect us and be our refuge.
Not all cultures believed in God, but they all
believed in some kind of superpowers, spirits or demigods that served
the same purpose of coming to the rescue of the believers in the moment
of their need.
So beliefs are primitive but they were essential to
our psychological and emotional well-being. When humanity was passing
through the stage of its childhood, beliefs helped her to survive, to
overcome the difficulties and face the problems. But as we collectively
grow out of our childhood, the need to believe in an external power
diminishes. We no more need to believe in a god to provide for us, for
we can now rely on our own resources. We no more need to supplicate to a
god to save us from sickness, calamities and disasters, for we have
learned to take care of ourselves through science and our newfound
knowledge.
We can rely more on our own efforts than on the praying and supplicating
a god.
However, although the need to believe in an
external power is becoming superfluous as we mature, our need to believe
has not disappeared altogether. We still need to believe in our own
potentials, that we can do it, that we can pull it out. The belief is
still there, although the object of the belief has changed. Once upon a
time we believed in an all-knowing God who would come to our rescue if
we prayed enough. But now we believe that science and logic hold the
answers to most if not all of our problems.
This process of maturity of human race is not
complete. We are still evolving and maturing. An elite of humanity has
reached this maturity. They are the ones who set the standard. They are
the ones who lead the way and define the direction. But the majority of
us are not there yet. The majority of us are still emotionally in the
stage of our childhood. We still need to believe. A few of us have
broken away from beliefs in supernatural, gods, angles and other
“adult” fairytales. But most of us are still tied to the manacles of
faith.
This majority of the humanity is more emotional
than intellectual. That is why you can find people who are highly
educated, intellectuals, with many degrees and academic qualifications
who are still childish in their emotional maturity. There are still many
academicians, scientists and men and women of high intelligence, who
cannot get themselves rid of god, religion and faith. As intellectuals,
these people would never accept anything without evidence in their area
of expertise. Yet they are willing to forego their intelligence and
accept religious beliefs solely by faith. This might seem a paradox but
in reality it isn’t. Intellectual maturity and emotional maturity are
two separate things. One may be a highly intelligent person yet
emotionally immature. And because emotional needs always take precedence
over intellectual needs, when there is a conflict between the two the
person invariably seeks to fulfill his emotional needs rather than his
intellectual quest. Upon our emotional satisfaction rests our sense of
security. Surely if the notion of God as a being does not make sense
intellectually it may be a nuisance but it is not as nearly frightening
as the feeling of being left alone without the all-knowing, the caring
and the loving parent whom we have learned to rely upon in the darkest
moments of our solitude. The
thought of being left alone is unbearable. We might be grownup adults
and even aging senor citizens, but emotionally we could be still
children, needing to cling to our loving parent, needing to believe in
God.
There is one point worth mentioning here. We are
all believers at times and freethinkers at other times. Just as I spoke
of intellectuals who are freethinkers in all aspects of their lives
except when it come to religion, there are those who would not accept
the idea of God because they find little evidence to support it, yet
have no difficulty accepting astrology, for example, (or some New Age
mumbo jumbo) as real science. On the other hand there are those who are
very religious and would never question the existence of God despite the
lack of evidence supporting it, yet do discard astrology as hocus-pocus.
There are those who are freethinkers in all areas of their lives yet
believe both in God and in astrology and others who spurn all of it. So
we are all skeptics in some areas and believers in others.
Belief in
materialism is also a belief. Many people have experienced phenomena
like near death experience NDE, telepathy, psychic visions and other
unexplainable singularities. These experiences are unexplainable. A
rational person would pass no judgments until the facts become more
clear. Yet the there are those who would deny the occurrence of
such phenomena altogether and try to explain them off with arguments
that is no more plausible than the jabber of religionists. This absolute
or rather blind faith that all phenomena must be explained by human's
limited science is also a form of belief that affect many in scientific
community, people whom I call pseudo scientists.
The good news is that beliefs though very stubborn
are not invincible. There is a point that even the most fanatical and
zealot believer finds hard to accept. This is what could be defined as
the critical point of the faith of the believer. All faiths are based on
beliefs without evidence. But the believer can find something in his
belief system that does not make sense to him. This point is different
for each person and it depends on the sensibility and the fair
mindedness of that individual. It could be ephemeral yet it is the straw
that will break the back of the camel and it will start a domino effect
that will breakdown his entire belief system. Once the believer finds
one point in the doctrine in which he believes that he has
difficulty to surmount, soon he will find other points that makes
no sense to him. He will start to doubt even those points were he had no
difficulty to believe prior to that and the whole sand castle of his
faith will come down. Depending on the nature of the belief and its
intensity, the believer goes through different phases of denial,
confusion, shock, dismay, anger and finally the last phase, which is
enlightenment. The process
is painful, yet the reward is immense.
However, most people do not make it through the
first stage. A great number of the believers will not go beyond the
stage of denial. The fear of exploring new territories, the fear of
separation, the fear of losing the reliable god of their imagination,
the fear of being left with nothing but their own means is too great for
some to bear. We all have comfort zones and change means going out of
our comfort zone. This is not an easy step. This is like leaving the
comfort of home and venturing out in the world with no one to turn to.
At home we are being taken care of. At home our emotional needs are
being fulfilled. We have someone to turn to, even if in the case of
religion that someone is in our imagination. But whom we shall turn to
if we venture out? Who will come to our rescue if we feel lonely? The
pain of separation is too big. Some prison inmates feel that pain when
they are released after decades of staying in the Jail. A great
depression overcomes them. The prison was the prison, but it was home.
That was the only home they had known for most of their lives. Now that
they are free, what can they do? How they can face the world on their
own? The pain of separation is so great that many of them are overtaken
by a melancholic sense of nostalgia. They go through depression. This
pain is what we feel when we think of severing our ties with our
imaginary God. We know that if we leave his prison we cannot come back.
We have grown so much used to him. He has been our best friend and
companion in all the moments of our solitude and despair. Sure he never
lift a finger to help us, but he was there to listen to our
lamentations, he heard our cries, he wiped our tears.
It is always small incidents that trigger the spark
of doubt in the believer’s mind, something that she may find illogical
or unjust. But once the seed of doubt is sown, it will eventually grow,
sometimes inconspicuous to the believer and the arduous and painful
journey to freethinking begins. From the time that the seed of doubt is
sown to the moment that it actually comes to fruition in some people
could take many years. It depends on our emotional maturity and the
level of risk we are willing to take to get out of our comfort zone and
leave home. Eventually we will all mature; we will all come to our
senses and we will all spurn faith and beliefs but this is a slow
process.
Of course just like any seed, the seed of doubt
needs proper environment to grow. Where thoughts are suppressed and
speeches are censored, rational thinking does not flourish, doubts are
uprooted and faith will cast its shadow of ignorance upon the believers.
However, that is going to change. As the Internet brings the people of
the world together, it becomes harder and harder for the forces of
darkness to keep their lid over the truth and harness the freedom of
thought and freedom of expression. Ere long the entire humanity will
start questioning their time-honored and cherished dogmas and when they
find no answer the seed of doubt is sown and the process of
enlightenment is already set in
motion.
Ali Sina
June 2001
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