Religion
Chapter 3 - Experiential Growth Method® - Deeper dive
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Welcome to the Religion page
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Religion and survival
There are several significant arguments for why belief - whether in gods, spirits, moral rules, or the supernatural - may have helped humans survive and thrive.
One of the strongest arguments is that shared beliefs help bind communities together, which is essential for survival, strenghtingingː
- Trust and Cooperation: Believing in the same gods or moral systems helps strangers trust each other. This allows for larger, more cooperative societies
- Punishment and Reputation: If people believe a supernatural force is always watching (e.g., God, karma, spirits), they may be less likely to cheat or harm others. This creates more stable societies
- Rituals Strengthen Bonds: Religious ceremonies, from tribal dances to modern church services, reinforce group identity and loyalty. This makes communities more resilient
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Belief systems often provide emotional benefits that can help people endure hardshipː
- Reduces Anxiety and Fear: Belief in an afterlife or a just world helps people cope with death, suffering, and uncertainty
- Placebo Effect: Faith healing and religious rituals can trigger real psychological and physiological benefits, reducing stress and promoting well-being
- Meaning and Purpose: Having a belief system helps people feel their lives have direction, which can reduce depression and increase motivation
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Many religious traditions promote rules (Moral Codes and Law Enforcement) like "Do not kill" and "Help the poor"ː
- Social Stability: Shared moral beliefs prevent conflicts and make societies function more smoothly
- Authority and Obedience: If people believe moral laws come from a higher power, they may be more likely to follow them, reducing crime and rebellion
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Thinking about religion
Plato
| Sam Woodward - For Plato, rationalists and mystics can walk the same path - Aeon - 2024 |
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| Plato suggests that aspiring philosophers must have a transformative experience akin to the religious climax of the Eleusinian Mysteries if they seek the highest philosophical truth(s). To understand why Plato presents the philosophical process this way, we must understand his Theory of Forms.
His theory asserts that, for each identifiable characteristic in the world – including mathematical properties like largeness and length, or abstract qualities like beauty, justice and courage – there exists a corresponding universal principle, a form (which he called an ‘eidos’). For example, the form of largeness causes all things we perceive as large to appear large. This principle defines their largeness. Our senses alone do not explain this largeness: a wolf appears large when compared with a rat but small when compared with an elephant. The wolf can never be purely large or small. Instead, it is always in a state of becoming. True largeness, like any other form, is distinct from the material world of becoming. It is an object of stable knowledge whose nature never changes. True knowledge lies only with the forms, which exist in a realm separate from the material universe and are accessible only through a person’s intellect, not their senses. This might explain why Plato oftenuses the word ‘theios’, meaning ‘divine’, to describe the forms. |
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Adaptivity
| Dominic D. P. Johnson - God would be a costly accident: Supernatural beliefs as adaptive |
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| The universality and power of religious beliefs of some form or other – despite their costs – to billions of people around the world, every culture in history, and every hunter-gatherer society, strongly suggests that religion confers adaptive fitness benefits, for individuals and/or groups (at least in some contexts, for some people, and for some periods of human history). |
| The power of religion appears to stem precisely from its irrational and non-falsifiable features (Rappaport 1999), and empirical data suggest that religious beliefs are more effective at promoting group survival than similar but non-religious beliefs (Sosis & Bressler 2003). Cautious action policies might work in reducing selfishness, but they may not be as effective as God. |
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Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
People don't so much believe in God as they believe that believing in God is good. This can manifest in several ways:
- Social Conformity: Many people identify as religious because their community, family, or culture expects them to. They may not have deeply examined the beliefs themselves but see participation in religion as a sign of virtue
- Moral Justification: People may feel that religion is necessary to maintain moral order, even if they privately have doubts about its doctrines. They believe that other people need religion to be good, and that society would collapse without it
- Psychological Comfort: Some may not be fully convinced of religious claims but find comfort in religious practices, such as prayer, rituals, or belief in an afterlife
Some priests and pastors continue preaching even after losing belief because they think religion provides structure and meaning to people’s lives. This reinforces Dennett’s idea that religious belief often operates at a level removed from actual conviction.
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| Daniel Dennett - Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon - 2006 |
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