It’s impossible to predict the future, but examining what we know about religion – including why it evolved in the first place, and why some people chose to believe in it and others abandon it – can hint at how our relationship with the divine might play out in decades or centuries to come.We know why religion evolved? Well:
Understanding this requires a delve into “dual process theory”. This psychological staple states that we have two very basic forms of thought: System 1 and System 2. System 2 evolved relatively recently. It’s the voice in our head – the narrator who never seems to shut up – that enables us to plan and think logically.
This seems to be theory in rather a loose sense, more a hypothesis at best. And all System 1 seems to amount to is this: If you think the way we think you do, then that explains what you think, which seems a dubious proposition.
The problem here seems to be that the people doing the research themselves have no inner life and can't even imagine what it means to have one. Propositions are to religion what notation is to music. They are a means to an end, not the end itself, the finger pointing at the moon, not the moon. Moreover, the practice of faith is a good deal more harrowing than its cultured despisers imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment