Investigating Religion

Personal Note: When I started this endeavor last year, I wondered whether I would find enough material to post on a regular basis. I briefly contemplated making this a world-wide electronic diary, but I am too private a person to share all aspects of my life in that way. Instead, I chose to focus on things religious because of the power of religion in the lives of people and in the affairs of the world. I have been amazed by how many stories and reports dealing with religion are written.
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As an example, in The Economist is an article about a multi-year multi-million dollar research project into the reasons why religion exists. The article, entitled Where Angels No Longer Fear To Tread, can be found at http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=10875666.

What is the research intended to discover? According to the article: "The experiments it will sponsor are designed to look at the mental mechanisms needed to represent an omniscient deity, whether (and how) belief in such a 'surveillance-camera' God might improve reproductive success to an individual's Darwinian advantage, and whether religion enhances a person's reputation—for instance, do people think that those who believe in God are more trustworthy than those who do not? The researchers will also seek to establish whether different religions foster different levels of co-operation, for what reasons, and whether such co-operation brings collective benefits, both to the religious community and to those outside it."

I am not at all surprised that someone has funded such research. The modern tendency is to try to find the origins and explanations for all human responses. I would suspect that there will be some results, but that there will also be a decided limitation in the research. How can PET scans or ethical tests explain all there is to the religious endeavor?

A likely analogy is the research into love. The feeling of "falling in love" has been "proven" to be caused by the production of various neuro-chemicals, such as serotonin, which is related to feelings of intense pleasure, like that of a drug high, in the brains of the couple. The research, though, is a little shaky in determining whether the "feeling of love" came as a result of the brain chemicals or produced them. Further, this kind of research does not explain how and why couples stay married for 30, 40, or 50 years if the initial attraction is only due to brain chemicals with a short-lived effect.

It will be interesting to see what this research study will produce. I cannot wait to read the on-going reports from the research teams. I really will be eager to read how various groups - from the stridently religious to the stridently atheistic - react to it all. Stay tuned, folks.

The human being is a fascinating creature.