Discover magazine has a really interesting article on researchers who are seeking a biological basis for religiosity. From religious-leaning genes to hallucinogens that we produce naturally in our heads, these researchers seek to explain religion as a somewhat biological experience. (The hallucinogen theory is my favorite, as test subjects who were dosed with the naturally-occuring hallucinogen not only reported mystical, religious experiences, but also visions of clowns, elves, robots, and being eaten alive by insectoid creatures. Nice!) That would totally debunk my theory that religion is an essentially human narrative, handed down through the ages as compensation for the fact that humans, for whatever reason (perhaps genetic or chemical), tend to feel incomplete when left all by their onesies. We seem to have a deep, internal need to find some "other" that is not "self," as evidenced by Aristophanes' theory of split-aparts, Christians' search for knowing God through Jesus Christ, Buddhists' search for enlightenment, as well as the common conception of marriage and monogamy as an interweaving of two souls and lives (unity candle, anyone?)
3 comments:
Don't you think our desire to not feel alone is an evolutionary survival instinct that encourages humans to be social and have others protect us.
Perhaps, though evolutionary instinct for companionship seems different to me than the feeling of incompleteness that can arise when humans tend to tackle the "large, unknowable" issues - death, birth, the nature of a sometimes incoherent universe. But certainly, certain nuns in the Middle Ages were drawn toward the Church as a substitute for marriage (their only other option), and thus the cloister could have fulfilled the same survival instinct. Another part of the article discussed how mystical experiences produced neurological changes that were similar to orgasms, so one could hypothesize that the feeling between the two is tied to a survival instinct to feel closer to others, and hence more complete.
mmm... nuns.
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