Interestingly
the Koran sheds some light on this topic: 'If you ask them, "Who has
created the heavens and the earth?" They will certainly say, "God has
created them." '
When
believers are asked the reason as to why they believe in God, they
answer with the that the believe in God is something that can be felt
and not described.
Atheists
such as Richard Dawkins put the belief in God down to Human evolution
and support the idea that in the past our ancestors believed in many
God's and as civilisations developed, humans began supporting the idea
of one God. According to Richard Dawkins the next logical step in this
evolutionary process is the negation of the belief in a higher power.
On
the other hand of the scale, believers assert that the belief in God is
natural in every living being. We have been created to believe in God
which is why our basic instincts lead us to continuously search for
reasons of our existence in this temporary world. This article is not to
prove whether God exists or not rather it is to examine research that
has been conducted in this area. Is a human truly predisposed to believe
in a higher power? Did intelligence of the human evolve to believe in
God?
Evidence
suggests that our ancestors as far as 30,000 years ago believed in
religion and an afterlife. Other evidence such as burial sites of
Neanderthals suggests that religion was part of the society 50,000 years
ago.
The
viewpoint that believe in God is natural is supported by research
carried at University of Oxford titled 'The Cognition, Religion and
Theology Project' in 20 countries representing both traditionally
religious and atheistic views found that humans are naturally inclined
to believe in God. Summary of this study as written in Science Daily is
as follows :
- 'New research finds that humans have natural tendencies to believe in gods and an afterlife. Research suggests that people across many different cultures instinctively believe that some part of their mind, soul or spirit lives on after-death. The studies demonstrate that people are natural 'dualists' finding it easy to conceive of the separation of the mind and the body.'
Is belief in God evolutionary?
The
problem with this view is that Intelligence is in reality the measure
of how well one thinks, not what they know. Take for example a fire. If I
were to see a burning bush, I KNOW it is dangerous but HOW i put it out
will differ from how my ancestors would have put out the fire. Today we
use fire retardant chemicals to put out fires which I'm sure our
ancestors had no access to neither did they develop it. Returning this
theory to God and evolution, our ancestors believed in a God and we
believe in God as well. How we understand God may have undergone an
evolutionary process. Therefore understanding God went an evolution, not
the belief in God. How and why this evolution took place requires it's
own study which is not within the scope of this article to cover.
Some researchers go as far as saying that humans possess the 'God Gene'.
Matthew
Alper author of 'The God part of the brain ' cites research carried
out in this field. Waller et al (1990) carried out research on religious
behaviours of 84 identical and non identical twins reared apart and 821
twins reared together. Conclusion of their research suggests that
'religious attitudes are genetically influenced'.
Research
carried out at Virginia Commonwealth University on 30,000 set of twins
concluded 'although the transmission of religiousness has been assumed
to be purely cultural, studies have demonstrated that genetic factors
play a role in the individual differences in some religious traits'.
Researchers also noted that 'religious affiliation is primarily a
cultural transmitted phenomenon, religious attitudes and practices are
moderately influenced by genetic factors.'
Kindle,
Gardner & Prescott (1997) concluded that 'A twin study of females
reports that genetic factors influence devotion - a factor including
importance of religiousness beliefs, the frequency of seeking spiritual
comfort in difficult times and the frequency of prayer'.
The
university of Minnesota conducted it's own research using twin study
and found that 'studies of twins raised apart suggest that 50% of the
extent of our religious interests and attitudes are determined our
genes.'
Before
we move further, a short conclusion on what has been cited above is
important. Humans believe in God because they are 'naturally inclined'
to do so and they also have the 'God Gene'.
Since genes
are hereditary, our ancestors would also have been carriers of the God
Gene. In 2012, the last known consensus (as per my research), 84% of the
world believes in a creator. Now backtracking to our ancestors, we can
safely say 84% or greater of our ancestors also believed in God. That is
a very large percentage of population. What made them believe in a
creator? Can it be as Richard Dawkins claims Ignorance that led them to
believe in God? If it is indeed Ignorance, why is it that several
scientists who previously identified themselves as atheists later
changed their stance and declared themselves believers one of them being
Francis Collins. Since he was previously an atheist, I would assume he
didn't carry the God Gene or it was not dominant in him and he is not of
the ignorant therefore becoming the perfect case study.
Does
the above mean that belief in a higher power /God is limited to the
mental sphere of the human and has no reality in the external world?
This would be an erroneous conclusion for three reasons :
- Further research needs to be conducted to prove or disprove the existence of God.
-
It is rather interesting to note that often our inner instincts have a
correlation to the external world. A simple example is as follows :
Every
human naturally feels hungry. It's correlation in the external world is
the existence of food to satisfy that desire to eat. Similarly humans
naturally love and want to be loved and it's correlation in the external
world is the family structure.
-
The existence of the Gene can be cited as evidence of a creator who
built an 'internal messenger' in the human who assist it in
understanding a divine presence. Dr Dean Hamer author of the book 'The God Gene : How faith is hardwired into our Genes' is quoted to have said :
“Religious
believers can point to the existence of God genes as one more sign of
the Creator’s ingenuity — a clever way to help humans acknowledge and
embrace a divine presence,”
Therefore those who do not possess the gene cannot believe in God? This would be erroneous for two reasons :
-
We cited above research carried out that concluded it is human
inclination to believe in God. The Gene along with other factors plays a
role as well in why a human believes in a higher power.
- Many atheists, agnostic, non believers have changed their stance regarding a creator such as Anthony Flew.
In
conclusion, humans not only have a natural inclination to believe in a
higher power but also possess a gene that helps humans to embrace a
divine existence. It cannot be said that those who do not possess the
gene cannot believe in a higher power as many atheists have revised
their views.
Further reading
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