Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?

[dales]

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?
by Alix Spiegel

August 30, 2010

August 30, 2010 Jesse Bering's mother died of cancer on a Sunday, in her own bed, at 9 o'clock at night. Bering and his siblings closed her door and went downstairs, hoping they might somehow get some sleep.

It was a long, hard night, but around 7 a.m., something happened: The wind chimes outside his mother's window started to chime.

Bering remembers waking to the tinkle of these bells, a small but distinct sound in an otherwise silent house. And he remembers thinking that those bells carried a very specific message.

"It seemed to me ... that she was somehow telling us that she had made it to the other side. You know, cleared customs in heaven," Bering says.

The thought surprised him. Bering was a confirmed atheist. He did not believe in any kind of supernatural anything. He prided himself on being a scientist, a psychologist who believed only in the measurable material world. But, he says, he simply couldn't help himself.

"My mind went there. It leapt there," Bering says. "And from a psychological perspective, this was really interesting to me. Because I didn't believe it on the one hand, but on the other hand I experienced it."

Why is it, Bering wondered, that even a determined skeptic could not stop himself from perceiving the supernatural? It really bothered him.

It was a very good question, he decided, to take up in his lab.

Read more here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... t=1&f=1001

[Big RR]

The children who were under the impression that Princess Alice was in the room with them were just as likely to refrain from cheating as those children who were actually in the room with a physical real-life human being. A similar study Bering did with adults showed the same thing — that they were dramatically less likely to cheat when they thought they were being observed by a supernatural presence.

I honestly would love to see that experiment; while I have no doubt that the results would be the same for children and adults, I wonder what sort of adults would be gullible enough to accept a researcher's assurance that a supernatural presence would be observing them. I wouldn't think them to be representative of any adult population; even adults who believe in god arrive at it through some sort of discernment, and not because someone they have never seen before tells them what to believe.

Indeed, this idea is hardly new; many have said that if there is no god, man would invent one. It certainly is a potent way to encourage moral behavior, althoyugh religions have shown how such a belief can be perverted by those who would seek to use it to achieve their own ends, be it war, power, etc.

[Gob]

Cooperation is evolutionary advantageous, that's why animals hunt in packs etc. I don't think they need a god to do it.

[Big RR]

while animals hunt in packs and cooperate in that way, the stronger usually exert their strength over the weaker to get more of the booty, or the females, or whatever. The presence of a god skews this a bit, and lets the strong know that they are not, and should not be free to exert their will over the weaker, their is an infinitely stronger arbiter which will call them to account for their actions if they do. Which is what I think this experiment was designed to show--people will behave ethically if they believe an unseen force is waching them that can reward/punsih them for their behavior. Which is hardly a suprise IMHO.

[Gob]

Good point mate, but surely it is our level of sophistication and intellect which provokes us to do so, not fear of an invisible being?

[loCAtek]

Not fear, but love. God loves all equally- the strong and the weak. It is in our best interests to follow that example.

[Gob]

That makes no sense.

[Big RR]

Good point mate, but surely it is our level of sophistication and intellect which provokes us to do so, not fear of an invisible being?

I'd like to think so, but I'm not certain. And, in any event, the addition of the all-powerful being watching you at all times is an excellent belt to pair with the suspenders of our "sophistication and intellect".

[loCAtek]

That makes no sense.

You don't understand, or you don't agree with the concept of equality?

[Gob]

I don't understand what "god's love" has to do with people behaving better if they do not believe in god. I do not understand how "god's love" makes us better people.

[dales]

It doesn't , Gob.

God doesn't desire "better people" but thru HIS love come to know His son, Jesus the Christ who died for ALL as payment in full for sin.

[Gob]

Which again has no bearing on evolutionary development.

[dales]

It's just one in a matrix of many advantages (or not).

Not the only one by any means.

I believe a very important key in the development of human societies.

[loCAtek]

Granted- we choose; God guides.