I have the cover feature in New Scientist this week. It’s called Natural Born Believers, and it’s about how our brains are primed for religion:
That's not to say that the human brain has a "god module" in the same way that it has a language module that evolved specifically for acquiring language. Rather, some of the unique cognitive capacities that have made us so successful as a species also work together to create a tendency for supernatural thinking. "There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired," says [Yale psychologist Paul] Bloom.
I think it’s a really interesting story (well I would, wouldn’t I?), and it has particular resonance since hard times – the current global recession, for example – seem to make this hard-wiring take control. Recession and religion seem to go hand in hand - see this story in the New York Times, for example.The story is buzzing on the New Scientist website (the 300th comment has just gone up – that’s in just one day). So, what does it mean? God is imaginary? Or God made sure we could appreciate the Divine? You decide.
Subscribe