The Science of Believing

Humans are adapted for human attachment; this has been clearly outlined by psychologist John Bowlby, who studied the attachment of children. Even as adults, we easily attach to our pets and even to inanimate objects. We fairly easily make the leap from inanimate objects to deities. We also have imaginations so we can imagine what a thing not directly in front of us would say or do.

The concept of cognitive decoupling is what children do when they pretend while playing. We use this same imagination to believe in something with an all-knowing mind, particularly if it is woven in biblical texts and other readings. We also are extremely likely to anthropomorphize things. We see human faces and human shapes in all sorts of inanimate objects.

People also thrive on ritual, mostly because it is so predictable. As far as we know, our ancestors used medicinals and tribal rituals to achieve trance-like states. The Sentinelese people were known for this behavior; you will still see it today in aboriginal societies and ceremonies. These are social events that improve the feel-good chemicals in our brain.

Oddly, while we encourage kids to challenge other pretend things, like Santa Claus or the Easter bunny, it is considered sinful in some faiths to challenge or criticize one's pastor. This social oddity has made religion thrive from childhood onward, when the Easter bunny does not.

THE SCIENCE OF BELIEVING

Children old enough to talk will say things that show how easy it is to believe in order and intentional design. Ask a child why trees are so tall and you might hear an answer something like this: "So we can climb high enough to see everything". It's as though they believe the trees exist only for us and that they have benevolent intentions toward us.

Children and adults alike also easily see patterns even in randomness. If you show people random collections of dots, many will see something in them, even if it isn't the same pattern seen in every one of us. This expands to our need for meaning, even when none is intended. We want to know what something means, especially under stress or in adverse or uncertain times.

Lastly, we seem to be primed toward supernatural thinking. Preschoolers will talk about their life before birth and will have some preordained thinking about an immortal "God", even without prior teaching. Some will talk about life after death without being taught specifically about that.

One interesting oddity related likely to our brain wiring is that we are more likely to remember things that are slightly "out there" or counterintuitive. In other words, if you were told a story about a sleeping cat versus one about a swimming cat, you would remember the swimming cat story better over time. But, if the story is too far out to believe – like a potted plant-like cat story, for example – you might not remember that. If you can't put a visual on it, you won't remember it.

Stories people remembered back when oral tradition was important were those most often passed on to the group as a whole. A good religion needs a solid vehicle for keeping the flock informed. This concept is very important when you think of how religions grew and spread through the generations.

It turns out that there is a particular part of our brain that lights up when God is spoken about in positive ways or when people pray. It is the same place that lights up when we think of an authority figure in our life we feel positively about and is the part we use when trying to think about how others are feeling. This part of our brain is more firmly wired in people who regularly pray or meditate.

More interesting work was done by researchers who studied the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain, which spikes brain waves when we make a mistake. If you feel anxious when you make a mistake, this is the part of your brain firing. People who believe in God more strongly are less anxious when making a mistake; this part of the brain fires less under pressure. Religion seems to help lower this cortical brain response, helping people be less anxious.

This research on brain anatomy and physiology may explain why spiritual beliefs lower the tendency toward anxiety and depression. It also may explain the longer lives of spiritual people who do not drink, smoke, or have other dangerous vices compared to nonspiritual people.

Finally, religion supports healthy social systems. Unrelated people are more likely to "play nice" if religion is involved in the society. Religious people are more charitable toward one another, which helps move the society along further and in safer ways.

Religion and morality evolved and grew at the same time and are interdependent in many ways. The five basic moral foundations are essentially the same in all religions. These are to play fair, do no harm, respect authority, be loyal to your group, and live a pure life. Through these foundations, certain rituals were developed to unite individuals under a common and safe tent.

As we will discuss later, religion itself is something that can also sow deep division between people. The more that your religion represents your social in-group, the less trust you will have toward your out-group – those who do not believe as you do. But, even if religion is one of the major sources of social divide and violence, abolishing belief altogether is not something our brains may be able to do, simply because of how we are wired.

In summary, we need to ask ourselves if the tendency to believe is mostly neurological, environmental, social, evolutionary, or cultural? In this chapter, you have seen evidence of each of these. Culture probably plays the least role in the actual tendency to believe and the most in what we choose to believe. The belief in god crosses almost all cultures, so culture itself isn't the real issue. Instead, there appears to be more evidence that belief is related to the way the human nervous system is wired and how we have adapted to our environment as we have evolved as social human beings.