Re: The Spirituality of Chimps
- From: "Glen M. Sizemore" <gmsizemore2@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 00:53:19 -0500 (EST)
"Mark Thomas" <m.thomas57@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dtq8i8$16r1$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fair enough to be sceptical until you understand why it makes sense.
It is a big call.
However, as oxygen was always there and phlogiston wasn't wasn't there,
and just as the Earth was so obviously flat, so we should always be
prepared to challenge our deepest held assumptions - even if everyone
else shares them. Always remember those millions of flies, they keep
the frogs in business.
You are so used to religion being in this box and evolution being in
another, that you, perhaps, find it easier to ridicule the idea that
they may be in the same box, rather than to think your way out of your
box.
A testable hypothesis?
Or a null hypothesis? As Dunbar pointed out, religion is very costly -
it just has to have a selective impact.
It does have a selective advantage - at the level of culture. It functions
largely to control the behavior of the members of the culture, and cultures
that did not do this are no longer around.
The status centre hypothesis is eminently testable by brain scanning.
It should light up under social stress. I would further suggest that
clinical depression is in there too and occurs when an individual is
forced so far down, or even out of the hierarchy, that they feel unable
to control their lives any further. Clinical depression is part of the
mechanism that stops the game (as it is being lost) and so gives the
individual the chance of a new start somewhere else.
I would then stick my neck out, if it is a neck, and not a constriction
caused by a misplaced halo, and suggest that the part of the status
centre that lights up to the alpha will also light up for God i.e. when
a person believes they are in the presence of their God, or are engaged
in what they believe to be meaningful communication with their God.
The "status center"? Yup. That's what is silly about all the imaging junk.
Mark Thomas
.
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