Wow. What a compelling but frightening question to try to answer. It
will be nice to settle this once and for all, though, don't you think?
Once we get this out of the way, we should be able to concentrate more
of our collective mental energy on the urgent task of developing
robots that will clean our houses and bring us beer.
Essentially, there are almost infinite schools of thought on this
issue. In fact, there's probably a discrete philosophy for every
single person who's ever pondered the issue. Not to put too fine a
point on it, I've attempted to broadly categorize the main schools of
thought for you in the discussion that follows.
Here's one article that discusses your very question in some detail:
http://www.revistainterforum.com/english/articles/origin1_en031801.html
"The bottom line is that Religion or what we can call the “Religious
Instinct” is a very powerful mechanism inborn in the human race. We
can add that “ Religious Instinct” is a Spiritual phenomenon that has
been present in the human race from the very beginning and to date
little understood. Furthermore, we know, at this point, of no other
species on the planet possessing such an instinct or behavior, only
man. We have also established that all religions have basic
similarities and in essence just about all religions “Lead to the same
place”."
And here's a link to a personal essay from someone who's pondered
these issues as well and has reached some conclusions of her own:
http://www.geocities.com/finis_stellae/ng/ft/why-religion.html
"Let's begin by what the common person thinks about religion. After
some inquiry I've concluded that, for most, belief is a psychological
need (though people don't usually express themselves in those terms).
It's as if something inside a person's mind or soul (whatever that's
taken to mean) demanded that some things out of one's control exist.
The existence need is usually tied with the need for these
supernatural forces to be at least aware of human beings, and, if
possible, to be receptive to their prayers, questions, and rites of
appeasement or invocation of different kinds. (I must note that this
is not always the case; some people believe in destiny, fate, luck, or
the inscrutable paths of God, as existing and powerful but quite
indifferent to human action.) "
Also, from this page, which asks the question "What is Religion?"
http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/whatisreligion.htm
"At some stage in life we are all faced with answering what the Buddha
called Ultimate Questions (E.g. ‘Where did the world come from?’, ‘Why
am I here?’ and ‘Where am I going?’). We can find satisfactory answers
both beyond and within religion."
and
"Anthroplogists speak of religion as that which unites people in a
shared experience and explanation of life. Sociologists see religion
as that which provides an agreed way of looking at the world. It gives
the individual a sense of purpose and meaning. Historians however
understand religion as the cause of events which are the results of
beliefs."
The first question could be whether the religion instinct is
hard-wired.
This page would indicate that, indeed, the religion instinct has
neurological bases:
http://www.lucifer.com/virus/virus.1Q99/2565.html
NOTE: Before going to this page, please note the domain name,
lucifer.com, and decide whether you want to look there. This does
provide a fairly comprehensive survey of the state of research into
the neurological studies of the religion instinct, but some of the
commentary in the text may be offensive to some.
From this page:
"Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered that if
one twin is deeply religious, the other is too. (Waller et al 1990
Psychological Science vol 1 p138). This says nothing about the truth
or otherwise of religious belief, but it does suggest that a
propensity for religious belief can be hard-wired, genetically, into
the brain, and had a selective advantage in the past. Waller's
research at the University of Minnesota in 1990 apparently used
identical twins raised apart (a common research technique when
attempting to determine whether a characteristic is primarily genetic
or cultural), and it offers an alternative hypothesis to those who use
the indisputable evidence of the survival of religious belief as
evidence that a God must exist for people to believe in. "
Further evidence of this "God Module" is described here:
http://www.iol.ie/~afifi/BICNews/Health/health19.htm
"In a carefully designed experiment, the researchers determined that
one effect of the patients' seizures was to strengthen their brain's
involuntary response to religious words, leading the scientists to
suggest a portion of the brain is naturally attuned to ideas about a
supreme being.
"It is not clear why such dedicated neural machinery ... for religion
may have evolved," the team reported Tuesday at a meeting of the
Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. One possibility, the
scientists suggested, was to encourage tribe loyalty or reinforce
kinship ties or the stability of a closely knit clan."
That sort of addresses the "How" aspect of your question. Basically,
we can accept that there are studies out there that show that there
may be a portion of the brain that reacts to the concept of a supreme
being.
But the real core of your question, as I see it, is "Why?" That is,
what causes these religious leanings?
1. DIVINE INSPIRATION. Theists of any stripe are most likely to
ascribe to this notion. Man needs religion because supreme beings
exist, they created them, and thus inspire man.
Here are a few pages that describe divine inspiration:
http://www.mutenasserin.net/mutenasserin/english/fq/w_inspirtion.html
From this page:
" 3. Inspiration is a declaration from God Himself – God’s love
is declared to man - the beloved - according to man’s ability to
understand. It is also graded to suit every person’s ability of
understanding and knowledge. Therefore, we find that Biblical
inspiration is God’s message about Himself and His revelation of His
being by his communication in human history through a family that had
suitable knowledge and an ability to receive Gods’ inspiration. This
shows us the value of the prophets and apostles He had chosen. "
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08045a.htm
"Inspiration can be considered in God, who produces it; in man, who is
its object; and in the text, which is its term. "
2. RELIGION AS MENTAL ILLNESS. This theory, held by people such as
Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, advances the idea that religion is the
psychological response to some shortcoming in the human psyche.
See this page for an overview of this philosophy:
http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/freudreligion.htm
"Freud believed religion developed in response to human feelings of
helpless in the face of a world they cannot control (E.g. earthquakes,
disease and death). Just as children have their earthly father to
protect them from the common dangers of life Freud believed this need
is often carried forward into adulthood and subsequently projected
into the heavens creating a 'Heavenly Father' who also protects and
cares for people."
3. RELIGION AS METAPHOR FOR HUMAN IDEALS. This theory espouses that
religion is something of a psychological metaphor for those things
that we as humans aspire to--the summation of our goals and admiration
for others.
This page describes this philosophy:
http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/highestideals.htm
"In recent years many Christians have begun to adopt and develop a
third position called Christian non-realism (or Contemporary Christian
Humanism - non-theism). This is the position espoused on this website
and is the belief that God exists merely as an expression of that we
take as wholesome and good in society. In short, our highest ideals
are expressed as God. This means that when one reads the word 'God (or
god(s)' one is saying that nothing exists apart from the word. There
is nothing to which the word refers to other than our own highest
ideals."
CONCLUSION
To summarize as concisely as I can: I dunno, but I sure would like one
of them beer-gettin' robots about now.
The real answer could be any of the summarized theories, none of them,
some combination of all, or something else entirely.
The roots of your question lie in the difference between humans and
other animals. That's a whole new question, but likely, your answer to
that is your answer to the question you asked.
If we were created by a supreme being as a higher life form than the
other animals, then a likely answer would be "God gave us the capacity
to worship."
If we differ from the other animals merely by virtue of the stage of
evolution we've achieved to this point, then a likely answer would be
that our tendency toward religion is some sort of interim measure,
which helps us to reconcile a world that we have only begun to
understand, but still have the capacity to ponder.
If we differ from other animals by virtue of some capacity for
abstraction, then it's likely that our tendency toward worship is a
desire to put our abstractions into a more concrete form, and to
create metaphors and anthropomorphic entities to embody our ideals.
There are at least eleventy bajillion other explanations not
summarized here, based on my rough calculations, so please feel free
to ask for clarification if I've left something out that's important
to you.
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