‘During Evolution, People with Religious Tendencies Worked Together Which Helped Them Survive’
We are born believers. Human beings are programmed by evolution to believe in God because it gives them a better chance of survival, researchers have claimed.
The idea has emerged from studies of the way children’s brains develop and of the workings of the brain during religious experiences, Times Online reported on Monday.
Researchers suggest that during evolution groups of humans with religious tendencies began to benefit from their beliefs, perhaps because they tended to work together better and so stood a greater chance of survival. The findings challenge campaigners against organised religion, such as Richard Dawkins, author of ‘The God Delusion’. He has long argued that religious beliefs result from poor education and childhood “indoctrination”.
Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, believes the picture is more complex. “Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world works,” Times quoted Hood as saying.
“As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion.” Hood, will present his findings at the British Science Association’s meeting this week, sees organised religion as just part of a spectrum of supernatural beliefs.
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4:55 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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