This starts out with:
What evolutionary purpose does religion serve?
at 0:40, “Religion is a secretion of the brain.”
Lionel Tiger is a Canadian-born, American-based anthropologist. He is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and co-Research Director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
The Brain Creates Religion
May 20, 2011
I was working on my workbook next installment, on the soul, and doing a little google searching out of curiosity, it was well rewarded, I wasn’t familiar with him.
Turns out he’s also affiliated with CFI
Another interesting talk, he makes a lot of sense.
Religion is the serotonin of society
Ideology III: Lionel Tiger: How Religion Soothes the Brain
May 13, 2010
The Agenda with Steve PalkinLionel Tiger on how religion helps the brain adjust to stress and anxiety.
Lionel Tiger is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and the author of God’s Brain (with Michael McGuire), Men in Groups, The Imperial Animal (with Robin Fox), The Pursuit of Pleasure, Optimism: The Biology of Hope, and The Decline of Males.
Anyone here familiar with Lionel’s work?
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Anyone here familiar with Lionel’s work?
No, but it’s an interesting question. If everything is a result of evolutionary processes, the appearance of religion must have been an evolutionary process, but perhaps not by “natural selection”, because it is obvious that religion does not impact the ability to procreate and is not directly related to survival of the species.
According to Seth this would be a purely subjective “uncontrolled hallucination” not reigned in by exterior data.
I think a lot of atheists would agree with this idea that it’s the brain. I’m not so keen on his use of the word “secretion”, but let’s say that is shorthand for something.
Also, a lot of atheists I’ve encountered don’t like the idea of doing the very things he said trigger that secretion, like singing together, hearing a message of hoped, just being together in a place that is full of colorful light and inspiring images. Instead, even in this Big Think, he goes to; getting a massage, or talking some pills. Those are really poor alternatives to the “religious experience”. Instead, why not recreate that experience, but remove the belief in irrational, unsubstantiated entities?
In the second video he says, “love consists of overestimating the difference between one woman and another”.
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religion does not impact the ability to procreate
I forgot to add that some religions may forbid procreation with apostates.
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In the second video he says, “love consists of overestimating the difference between one woman and another”.
Which I see as a rather shallow observation. Apparently he was not aware of the individual subjective reality each person experiences. Those realities can be worlds apart.
This is true. It’s not a stretch to say atheists are by and large, angry nerds.
Weird conclusion from what I said. The reason, or one train, non believers are wary of ritual is they know what gets smuggled in by people who start organizing them and claiming they are community leaders.
Oh yeah, would love to hear that one fleshed out.
Hmmm…
So, atheists are thinkers and that’s a bad thing?
Ironically, we see what base religious emotion does to the GOP these past years - guess you like the totalitarian bullies, people who can only deal with other people, by turning them into enemies, is that the better way to go, is that what you think?
What’s wrong with not believing in a personal god? It’s a ludicrous notion on every level you care to examine it. Well, other than blind faith.
No human gets as inhumane as a person who’s passionately convinced of his/her own religiosity and superiority.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe there are nice, healthy religions - but I also know religions also harbor the worst mankind has to offer, plus they make a great shield for the truly manipulate avaricious sociopaths to play their puppet master games, with We The Gullible People.
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Also, a lot of atheists I’ve encountered don’t like the idea of doing the very things he said trigger that secretion, like singing together, hearing a message of hoped, just being together in a place that is full of colorful light and inspiring images. Instead, even in this Big Think, he goes to; getting a massage, or talking some pills. Those are really poor alternatives to the “religious experience”. Instead, why not recreate that experience, but remove the belief in irrational, unsubstantiated entities?
Religious people are not exempt from taking hallucinogenic in the practice of their religion, so that’s not marker.
I believe that atheists rely on the effects of the mirror neural system, that allows a person to share “the same reality”. It commonly referred as “empathy”.
This experience can be as wonderful and exciting as any religious experience which is the same experience but falsely attributed to some supernatural agency.
This can be a very powerful emotion, such as 50,000 people experiencing a shared emotion in support of the “home team”.
It is already present in many animals and the mental phenomenon was discovered during experiments with macaque monkeys.
# Mirror neuron system
Mirror neuron system is a group of specialized neurons that “mirrors” the actions and behaviour of others. The involvement of mirror neuron system (MNS) is implicated in neurocognitive functions (social cognition, language, empathy, theory of mind) and neuropsychiatric disorders. MNS discovery is considered to be the most important landmark in neuroscience research during the last decade.
DISCOVERY
The mirror neurons were discovered serendipitously by Giacomo Rizzolatti and colleagues while working on the grasp response of macaques. They observed that a group of neurons in the area F5 of the premotor cortex that fires when a macaque performs an action; also discharges when it observes the same action being performed by another animal.[1] Subsequent research has elucidated the diverse regions involved in the MNS of monkeys. Recently different cortical structures have been described as part of the MNS in humans.
This may be one of the common denominators in humans and most likely in all herd animals and is IMO an important associative marker of brain neurology. It is notable that people with autism seem to lack that ability. Hence their inability to socialize.
Hmm, not sure what marker you mean here. Most religions are against that, but yes, a few are based on it. I never said the line between religion and atheism is clear. The thing about taking a drug to achieve a “religious experience” is, you know it’s a drug. It’s a lot easier to say the experience is the drug and it’s not supernatural.
Religion is a drug;
it encloses people in a false world,
it is highly addictive
it can be dangerous for religious people and for others
Well, yeah, but drugs are good if they are used in the correct measure, for the right symptoms. It’s the abuse of drugs that’s the problem.
Thinking does not make one a nerd.
Atheist nerds are antisocial and simply unable to interact with others. Many atheists are probably on the autism spectrum.
Rather than think about it, you decided to remote diagnose several million people. Hope you feel better about yourself and your place in the world.
Atheists do often exhibit many symptoms of the disorder.
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Atheists do often exhibit many symptoms of the disorder.
Are you an atheist? You certainly exhibit many symptoms of mental disorder.
Help me out. What is a “nerd” ?
A social reject that lacks the personality to make that status seem attractive. Maybe an example from the atheist movement would be someone like Christopher Hitchens, who was a social reject but not a nerd, whereas Sam Harris is a nerd.