Skip to main content

Philosophy: The Evolution of Religion: Is It Adaptive to Believe that God Is On Your Side?

Philosophy: The Evolution of Religion: Is It Adaptive to Believe that God Is On Your Side?
Dr Michael E Pryce of Brunel University London, Senior Lecturer in Psychology also School of Culture
BRLSI 7th June 2016
Notes by William Gaskell
Religiosity more psychological, some sort of belief in a natural order.
Adaption is a biological device that is Darwinian, natural selection etc. but not all traits we see in nature are adaptions for survival.
Recommended texts:
Darwin’s Cathedral
God is Watching You - cultural views.
Artist’s image: Jean D’Arc by Odilon Redon
Over attributing agency to Universe – schizophrenia as people may think government out to get them personally or are personally communicating with extra-terrestrial beings.
The question: “How would we do that?” may be a by-product.
Link between religiosity and survival, massive correlation becomes apparent in older women.
·         Public social benefits of a community
·         Private benefits are the extraneous factor – avoiding stress
Social support is the dominant factor affecting public health, secular mimics are doing as well as religious communities. The hypothesis is that there is a correlation between private religious beliefs making people attend church to be with like-minded people. Secular alternate are these Sunday Assembly meeting groups. One question science is pondering is how can these type of groups improve their performance in society? They make unseen order seem more real and reinforce faith in their private belief systems. Religions like Buddhism would have a belief system something along the line that moral order may be directional and human progress is going somewhere.
American politicians are often on a “Mission from God” as this type of private belief helps with fitness and to achieve goals. Oliver Cromwell is cited as an example of someone who was definitely on a “mission from God”.
Thomas Huxley was one of those American mimics who sought to replicate Darwin’s voyage of discovery as an atheist type.
The health benefits of religiosity are clear vis-à-vis happiness and public health but what is unclear is how it affects fitness and goal achievement. Science could be the basis of a community through revelation of an unseen order: “What do we think is real or not?” is a question that could measure religiosity and how it varies in people.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Notes from Energy & Utility Forum 2017

1. Robert Symons, CEO of Western Power Distribution said: “Energy demand could rise by 100% by 2030. Smart grids will be needed to manage electric vehicle charging so that the usage does not exceed the supply capacity at any time during the day.” 2. Spoke to Harry Vickers, Business Development Manager of Camborne Energy Storage, Camborne Capital at the Energy and Utility Forum in London on October 23rd 2017. He told me his company is working with Elon Musk to bring Tesla battery grid storage solutions to the UK. 3. Spoke to Sally Barrett-Williams, Chairman of Energy and Utility Forum on October 23rd, who said subsidies for solar projects had ended and her company’s focus has shifted to energy storage schemes. 4. Spoke to Simon Dowland, PhD, at 13:00 on Sunday 29th October, Simon is now working up in Cambridge at the Cavendish Physics Laboratory at the University of Cambridge, he is working in industry for the company Eight19 Ltd a spin off from a research project to bring ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

Letter to Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath regarding lived experience in the UK and her new legislation Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023

  I would like to share my recent experiences with you regarding this legislation, and would ask for some advice on my plans for my recovery from schizophrenia.   I feel that I have not received protection from harassment at work for my protected characteristics: I am an Anglo Indian and from a visual inspection look like the leader of the Indian opposition (to my eyesight), yet I have to deal with comments ranging from ‘I couldn’t tell you were Indian’ to ‘you look like you are from Southern Europe’, or ‘where are you from’ even though to my ear I usually speak in the central Bath accent as opposed to RP.     I have the diagnoses of dyslexia, autism and serious mental health (schizophrenia). I have had my mental health triggered recently by a colleague from Banes council harassing me at work, so I quit my job to focus on studying to become a reflexologist.   I am a Christian having been a member of the congregation at Bath Abbey and getting confir...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts of Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa at home in their 1 acre garden Grandpa was a scientist but no one paid him too much heed. He was a naval officer, Chief science officer, presumably naval lieutenant or, perhaps commander. I have never found out but I presume to have inherited the rank in British society. He had written about a voyage subsequent to WW2 where his ship promoted most ratings to officer rank, a 20 th century voyage of discovery where everyone made progress on their naval rank post war, so that most of the ships complement ended up as officers at the end of the voyage. This was led by a Rear-admiral so it must have all been legitimised by the mandarins at Whitehall. Grandpa never really approved of their pandering to communist sympathies. How many tweets make a twat again David Cameron? I think he was talking about Nick Clegg. #JokeOfTheDay my grandma thought I was an upper-class twit after I went to Eton. She thought it was more important to get a car and go on dates and make ou...
Post a Comment
Read more