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The interesting question is, what is it about consciousness that gives rise to religious beliefs? It's not "unexamined" (I'm referring to why intelligent peopl
by RichardCA 8y ago
The interesting question is, what is it about consciousness that gives rise to religious beliefs?
It's not "unexamined" (I'm referring to why intelligent people maintain religious belief). It's more about where one stands on the chicken-or-the-egg question. Did God endow us with consciousness, or does consciousness endow us with this temptation to believe, which is itself a form of qualia, one that's untethered from anything external (i.e. the sky being blue because of wavelengths of light).
There must be a reason why humans are burdened by this but my dog and cat are not.
- motohagiography 8y agoOddly, it would be interesting why evolution would select for a tendency toward having beliefs. If dogs and cats had "it," but were simply unburdened by needing to reconcile it with their facility to act through others (language), it could be seen to exist in them. Fish returning to spawning grounds could be an expression of belief, just as ritual fighting among deer during the rut, bees doing mating dances, etc. There is an underlying urge to continue life, and rituals for efficient, relatively non-destructive sorting for collective survival emerge across species. That our sorting uses our unique facility (language) kind of makes sense.