Do humans have a faith instinct?
 

It seems as though history always describes a faith of some sort in ancient and not so ancient peoples. Anthropoligists often make the same observations of the peoples they study. So is faith somehow on one of our genes?

The biologist Edmund O. Wilson considers us an altruistic species. As Franklin said, we must all hang together or we shall all hang seperately. If early groups of hunter/gatherers stuck together to fight wolves or big cats or human enemies from another tribe, they stood a much better chance of survival. This was altruism in action. Religion helped codify these altrustic acts.

So, do we have a "religous" gene whether we chose to admit it or not?

Great post. You are a good thinker sam. I'll give it some thought.

I think faith is /was a response to our once happy little monkey brains becoming self-aware creating a real fracture between the monkey and his environment. Faith tries to patch that up. This doesn't preclude the existence of a deity, but alters our mental construction of one in ways which may not be helpful in a more scientific age.

Excellent question, more thinkin' later.

We are probably hardwired for religion. As a social species, it's something that unites our tribe against the neighboring one. It makes us more successful, and more likely to pass our genes down, ensuring the trait is passed on. Natural selection. Sure.

Faith tries to combat the fear of the unknown. Some are more fearful than others... I think it's learned, not genetic.

Yep - it's been shown in a dozen different ways that those with faith are happier and live longer. It's a survival mechanism, no question.

Where it really gets interesting is when you start comparing the survival merits of different religions. For example, Catholicism's "no birth control" policy would seem to be a strong one, but some aspects of the faith may be too harsh to allow your average person to maintain the rules, so you risk losing followers. On the other hand, an "easygoing" and more palatable religion is also more likely to be pacifistic, and thus a target for being wiped out by an aggressive convert-or-die kind of religion.

I think it's the other way around: conquering your fears is the learned behavior. The newborn is instinctively fearful of certain things; the parents are there to assure them that everything will be okay.

I'll think about it some more, but my first though is that parents spend a lot more time saying 'no', warning of dangers, and explaining or inventing consequences than they do reassuring.

first, I think "faith" is different from religion, so no, I don't think faith is hardwired. What I do think is hardwired is curiosity. Humans are curious about the world around us and what makes it tick, and religion is one attempt to explain the unexplainable.

Hmm. That's definitely true once the kid reaches a certain age. Maybe that's a sign that the parent has already successfully instilled a sense of security? Do severely neglected/abused kids go through that same phase?

What Jinx and Cloud said. Curiosity: discomfort over the unexplained.

Good question Sam. My thoughts are that we believe or have faith in some God or other simply because we're so narcisitic as a species that we can't imagine only having one life like everything else. We can't accept we're just an organic construct, so we must be special where everything else isn't, so in order to waylay these fears somewhat, we've created higher powers.

Also, not too many people have ever found a good way of explaining death of loved ones to children without including all those lovely fairy stories about heaven and angels.

People, from the beginning up until relatively recently, lived with nature. In doing so they realized how weak and insignificant humans are, compared to many other animals and certainly to the natural forces of nature. I've said before, the only reason humans survived at all, is because nature usually moves pretty slowly. Anyway, knowing how vulnerable we are, would naturally lead to looking for help from any quarter, natural or supernatural.

More recently, humans have gotten pretty uppity, blowing mankind's importance all out of proportion to reality. Central heat/AC, we control our environment, and some claim the worlds environment. Food comes in an endless supply of pretty packages at the supermarket, making our pets think we're the greatest hunters, evah. All the work we do is comparatively easy, assisted by electricity or dead dinosaurs. Yes sir, top of the food chain, masters of the universe... gods? we are gods.

Notice the polls show the most religious people in the US are in rural areas. People that who at least observe nature (other than on the weather channel), and many actually interact with nature. These people know how delicate, how puny, how insignificant, humans really are. These people know, they can use help from any quarter... except the government.;)

A couple of more thoughts. Every living being fears its own death. If we weren't afraid to die practically no animals would populate the earth, so I wouldn't call faith in God narcissism on our part. It is more of a survival extinct. And even those who believe in God are not thrilled by dying, but I do think they get some comfort from the thought of heaven.

The lessons we teach our children are more about fitting into society and being successful. Although, I can remember my Mom teaching me that animals feel as much pain as humans do. I'll never forget how she tugged my ear the same way I was pulling on my puppy's ear (I was 4 at the time).

I go to the Methodist Church, although I can't give a reason for this. At least they are non-fundies and don't preach fire and brimstone. I don't believe Jesus died for my sins, although I believe he did exist as a historical figure. But I do like the help they give our community at large. Sometimes I think I go to church because my father used to take me as a small child. He has sinced passed, but I feel his presence in still Church.

Given my druthers, I'd be Buddhist, but our town is too small to have a Buddhist group.

Joseph Campbell said a religous experience prevents you from having a spiritual one. I think that's true. Many people are browbeat into a certain religous doctrine as children. I think that makes it very hard to determine if we have a "faith gene" or just want a bunch of virgins in paradise. ;)

You answered you're own question... group. It's a social thing that's natural for humans, gathering with people you are basically comfortable with. In the beginning that comfort comes from having something in common. Later you're even more comfortable because you get to know the other people.

That's also why people keep going back to the same bars. :haha:

It seems all the self described "recovering Roman Catholics" I talk to, relate the same tale of fear and loathing in their church/youth relationship. It makes it easier for me to understand their not only leaving the church, but rabid anti-religion attitude. It's a shame they didn't have a better experience in their formative years.

I remember my 2nd wife railing, many years later, how on a high school English test she said, "John loves Mary" was a proper sentence. The Nun marked it wrong because, "John can only love God."

That should have tipped me off that the bitch held grudges forever. :rolleyes: