Belief in God as an emotion
May. 31st, 2012 01:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackHumans have many emotions (or drives, or something else) which look like they're providing information, but actually aren't. Sometimes these are just an abberation, a glitch in something different. Eg. periodically someone wakes up in the middle of the night experiencing (i) paralysis, (ii) dread (iii) a sense of someone leaning over them.
As far as I know, this isn't for anything, it's just an failure of a failsafe that turned cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis on while the mind was still partially awake. But when you experience it, it look very very much like aliens. And not just looks like, it FEELS like something terrifying is going on, even if you WOULDN'T be freaked out anyway. So if you don't know about it, you may tend to assume you experienced something real, even though if an objective third party weighed up the evidence, "hallucination" would outweigh "demon".
Other times, the emotion itself is enjoyable or useful. Eg. optimism keeps us going when there's only a slim chance of success, which is useful when that's the only sensible gamble. But I don't think that optimists win the lottery more often, except insofar as they may PLAY more often.
And most poeple value love as part of the human condition and would want to keep it whether it were useful or not (also useful for forming families and perpetuating the species). And people in love often come to know each other much better than anyone else. And yet, most people THINK (i) they know each other really well and (ii) they are the only people who they will ever fall in love with, even if that's not based on experience of getting to know each other, but because they're teenage, just met, and full of hormones. But I think you would not find that experience love is a reliable guide to the TRUTH of those statements, it's more of a goal people aim for.
My suggestion, is that belief in God (or some other 'connection to the universe') is similar. We experience the urge to do it because it served a useful purpose and/or is a side-effect of something. But just because we hallucinate it, doesn't mean it's a reliable guide to what's actually TRUE!
But just because it's not true, doesn't mean it's abominable -- false beliefs can cause a lot of harm, and it's irresponsible to encourage people to believe them. But they can also be harmless or beneficial if indulged in responsibly -- nicer-tasting food is not necessarily better for us, but it's unexceptional to indulge in an equal quantity of nicer food if you can.
Historically, indulging the "connection to the universe" emotion has been often connected with "organised religion". But that's not always the case in either direction. And while in principle I don't think either are a good idea, I'm not sure whether or not going cold turky all at once is the best solution. Non-spiritual ritual can perform the same role in community building (eg. masons, flag-waving, atheist jews, etc) both good and bad, so feelings of God, while common, may not be unique.
As far as I know, this isn't for anything, it's just an failure of a failsafe that turned cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis on while the mind was still partially awake. But when you experience it, it look very very much like aliens. And not just looks like, it FEELS like something terrifying is going on, even if you WOULDN'T be freaked out anyway. So if you don't know about it, you may tend to assume you experienced something real, even though if an objective third party weighed up the evidence, "hallucination" would outweigh "demon".
Other times, the emotion itself is enjoyable or useful. Eg. optimism keeps us going when there's only a slim chance of success, which is useful when that's the only sensible gamble. But I don't think that optimists win the lottery more often, except insofar as they may PLAY more often.
And most poeple value love as part of the human condition and would want to keep it whether it were useful or not (also useful for forming families and perpetuating the species). And people in love often come to know each other much better than anyone else. And yet, most people THINK (i) they know each other really well and (ii) they are the only people who they will ever fall in love with, even if that's not based on experience of getting to know each other, but because they're teenage, just met, and full of hormones. But I think you would not find that experience love is a reliable guide to the TRUTH of those statements, it's more of a goal people aim for.
My suggestion, is that belief in God (or some other 'connection to the universe') is similar. We experience the urge to do it because it served a useful purpose and/or is a side-effect of something. But just because we hallucinate it, doesn't mean it's a reliable guide to what's actually TRUE!
But just because it's not true, doesn't mean it's abominable -- false beliefs can cause a lot of harm, and it's irresponsible to encourage people to believe them. But they can also be harmless or beneficial if indulged in responsibly -- nicer-tasting food is not necessarily better for us, but it's unexceptional to indulge in an equal quantity of nicer food if you can.
Historically, indulging the "connection to the universe" emotion has been often connected with "organised religion". But that's not always the case in either direction. And while in principle I don't think either are a good idea, I'm not sure whether or not going cold turky all at once is the best solution. Non-spiritual ritual can perform the same role in community building (eg. masons, flag-waving, atheist jews, etc) both good and bad, so feelings of God, while common, may not be unique.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-31 01:16 pm (UTC)Heh. I think I know my husband *sufficiently* well ... and think and can remember always having thought (since ~13 or so, at least) that there are lots of potential people that people can fall /be in love with (though of course when he and I got serious about each other we chose to give up all of those other potential people so it's now best to *act* as though we are The Only People For Each Other Ever, since that's the way we hope it will be. But you know, if I die I hope he won't worry about remarrying being some Bad Thing betraying my memory, because that would be silly).
"My suggestion, is that belief in God (or some other 'connection to the universe') is similar. We experience the urge to do it because it served a useful purpose and/or is a side-effect of something. But just because we hallucinate it, doesn't mean it's a reliable guide to what's actually TRUE!"
I think I agree with this pretty much entirely. I really don't think that the human yearning for God/destiny/fate/The Universal Divine/etc is really a helpful pointer towards any kind of truth. I don't find C. S. Lewis's "if I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy, that is a sign that I was made for another world" argument at all convincing. Although if I am asked asked I will refer to personal religious experience when talking about why I am a Christian, that's on the basis of believing I have *actually* had interactions with God**, rather than the desire for them.
Unsurprisingly, I disagree with your next few words ;) "But just because it's not true ..." - something (yearning for religious experience) not being an indication of the existence of God/the divine/etc doesn't mean that God *doesn't* exist, just that there are alternate plausible answers to the question "so why have so many people believed in a deity, then?".
(**I recognise, of course, that many people will believe I am mistaken about this.)
no subject
Date: 2012-05-31 04:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, I think I agree with all of this paragraph :)
"I think I agree with this pretty much entirely."
Cool. I expected this essay to be ripped to shreds by anyone significantly religious, but the response has been surprised me how positive it has been :)
""But just because it's not true ""
Yeah, good point, I didn't explicitly mean that therefore god didn't exist, but I see I asumed it. Obviously how harmful a non-justified belief is depends whether it happens to be true anyway.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-31 04:25 pm (UTC)Given my impression of your social circles, I suspect that the significantly religious people you know are very likely to fall into the category of "religious people who are annoyed when *other* religious people put forward stupid/badly-thought-out/illogical arguments for faith"! :)
no subject
Date: 2012-05-31 04:49 pm (UTC)Thinking about it, I think maybe I feel like I implied that this urge to feel a connection to God is the only reason people believe in God (which people would understandable object to), but that people _didn't_ see it like that?
no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 09:26 am (UTC)I think it's conceptually impossible to separate out "the urge to feel a connection to God/the Divine" from any other reasons why people might believe in God in a robust way. Obviously the urge to feel a connection to God (which you and I both agree exists) will be part of why people believe in God. And then, what people of faith might see as other reasons, non-religious people might very reasonably see as rationalisation, and I can't see a good way to argue one point of view or the other that doesn't appeal to the more basic "I believe God does/doesn't exist" which then begs the question!
no subject
Date: 2012-06-01 11:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-31 04:52 pm (UTC):) Yes, I obviously I do. Although if you're ever comfortable talking about it, I would be interested to hear about it. (As best as it can be described. I'm almost certain not to be convinced, but I can promise to be polite and not argue right then if you did :))
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Date: 2012-06-01 01:20 pm (UTC)(Despite having been a Christian for as long as I can remember, how I believe and what I understand believing/faith to *be* has changed a lot over the years. In particular, my perception of what it means to perceive God / encounter God has changed rather a lot over time - and no doubt will change again.)
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Date: 2012-05-31 03:10 pm (UTC)