All Categories - THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

10/2/2018

Many philosophical statement have been made to connect consciousness and awareness not only to the brain but also to connect somehow to, and reside in, a supernatural realm that makes it possible that when the brain dies one’s awareness and consciousness continue to exist for eternity. For those who propose this because of the wish to avoid the reality of death, neuro-science research is now coming to the conclusion that consciousness and awareness are functions totally depended on the material brain and that in reality brain death is the end of consciousness and awareness.

A new study indicates that our brains operate under the same laws as any other matter. The second law of thermodynamics is the essential rule of the physical universe. Systems move naturally from a low to a high rate of entropy. Scientist recently discovered parts of the brain which form a circuit that provides consciousness. They believe that consciousness has risen in response to entropy.

Scientists from the University of Toronto (Jose Luis Perez Velazques) and Paris Descartes University (Ramon Guavarra Erra)
applied a kind of probability theory, to look at statistical models neural networks. This method has been very good in determining the thermodynamic properties and entropy present in other systems.
"We find a surprisingly simple result,” they wrote. “Normal wakeful states are characterized by the greatest number of possible configurations of interactions between brain networks, representing highest entropy values." Consciousness in this view isn’t due to connectivity in and of itself, but how many different ways the brain can connect certain bundles of neurons to others. Due to the presence of high entropy, these scientists believe that to maximize the exchange of information between neurons, consciousness arose as an “emergent property,” helping to improve survival, but leading to a higher rate of entropy as a result.

Conclusion is that since it is now clear that consciousness and awareness are functions totally depended on a living material brain, when it dies, you as an individual are gone and no philosophical musings based on the desire to live forever will alter that reality.

References:

https://www.ibtimes.com/what-consciousness-self-awareness-may-be-side-effect-brain-trying-maximize-entropy-2433746

https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/harvard-researchers-have-found-the-source-of-human-consciousness

https://hms.harvard.edu/news/how-do-you-know-you-know

https://physicsworld.com/a/consciousness-is-tied-to-entropy-say-researchers/

Who are the "Nones"?

9/18/2018

When discussing religious affiliations, we run into a relatively new term called the “Nones”. Who are these Nones? They are generally regarded as:

Religious people not affiliated to any church. Religion is important to them but few engage in traditional practices. (17%)
People who struggle with their religious beliefs and are uncertain about the existence of an afterlife but consider themselves spiritual. (15%)
Non–believers who think that organized religion does more harm than good. (12%)
Solidly secular, Agnostics and Atheists (17%).

(Source: survey conducted Dec. 4-18, 2017, Pew research center)

These percentages are generally increasing in all the above categories while the “Highly Devout”, actively involved in their church (29%), (some of them, 10%, also believing in psychics, reincarnation and that spiritual energy can be located in physical objects), are slowly declining. (for a total of 40%). This decline is highly disputed by religious organizations but is observable by the smaller congregations and empty church buildings being converted into more mundane uses, such as apartments and office buildings. The current revelations of unethical behaviour of many religious leaders will possibly also accelerate this decline.

What will that mean for society as a whole? The hope is that a secular society, with a strict separation between State and Church will develop, and that “freedom of religion” is respected in the way it was intended, as the freedom to believe in and practice any religion, and not as the distorted version of some religious groups that interprets it as the right to force their worldview on others. Morality is developed by our culture and cannot be derived from ancient scriptures which do not apply to our modern society. Wikipedia: "morality" refers to whatever (if anything) is actually right or wrong, which may be independent of the values or mores held by any particular peoples or cultures.”

This is not intended as a debate on morality. I leave that to a future OP. This is simply a conclusion based on the information gleaned from a recent Pew Research Centre Survey, a well-respected Institute.
Ben Andrews, www.origin-of-religion.com

Myths and Beliefs

8/31/2018

Santa is a magical entity which lives high up in the North pole. He lives forever, He loves all children, knows everybody all the time and checks if they are good or bad. If you are good, you get a reward and, if you are bad, you get punished.

There are rituals connected with this belief, such as visit to Santa’s representatives, asking for toys and putting cookies and a glass of milk under the Xmas tree.
Research shows that, in the USA, 85% of 4-year-old children believe in Santa (Laura Sanders, Science News, Dec. 22, 2017). This belief is introduced by the parents or caregivers at an early age. At the age of 8, only 25% still believe while 55% is starting to have doubts and 20% are not believing. Researchers have found that around 8 years of age children enter what is called “the concrete operational stage of thinking” and start questioning the impossible things, such as flying reindeer, distributing toys in one night all over the world and so on. It is an end of an era when critical thinking starts to develop. Parents admit it was a myth which was mostly enjoyable and helped discipline their offspring. If someone refused to let go of the myth and still believed in Santa at age 16, we would take the afflicted individual to the psychiatrist to treat this delusion.

Now substitute “God” for Santa and we see a similar story. God is eternal, lives somewhere high up were we cannot go, knows everybody and records their good deeds or bad ones, mandates reward and punishment and establishes rituals and wish lists. Parents teach their children this myth while other cultures will indoctrinate their children with different myths. Since the development of the young mind is similar in all humans, any myths, if we would let nature take its course, would enter this “concrete operational stage” of development and would be the subjects of critical thinking which would result in the questioning of “impossible things”. Why is this true for Santa Claus but not for religious deities?
In most religions, doubts are not tolerated. There is enormous pressure by the religious leaders to conform. Questioning the tenets of the religion is not only considered a sin but can result in being ostracized from the community or, in some places, even result in death.
To prevent any indoctrination from becoming reality, it is very important that we promote the development of a secular education system that emphasizes training in critical thinking starting at around age seven, so that the natural development of the brain prevents these indoctrinations to become cemented and have less impact in the following generations. That will be tough to implement but it must be done. It will need a massive effort by all of us but it is the only way to get rid of many negative aspects of our current society.

PS. Since so many read only the first part of a post and then comment, without reading the whole post, and ignore the “see more” or “continue reading” buttons, I only will take your comments seriously if you prove that you read it all by typing “Read All” in your comment, since you obviously came this far. Constructive criticism is highly appreciated. Hope you don’t mind. Thanks for your interest!

JUSTICE

8/20/2018

JUSTICE
It is often thought that the desire to have an afterlife consisting of Heaven and Hell and believing in the “reward and punishment” system with a mythical entity who can bring this about, is driven by the fear of death and a desire to live forever. I read an interesting opinion about that it is not the only reason to explain the belief. Many people have a strong desire to see justice done and when we experience that in many cases justice is not apparent, it is really upsetting to many people, who try to be as good as possible themselves, but see some others get away with their crimes, greed and bad behaviour, unpunished. It is satisfying to believe that there is a final judgment which applies to everybody so that justice is ultimately done. Something to think about isn’t it. What do you think?

EMPIRICAL SENSES

7/28/2018

There is a great misunderstanding about the meaning of the word “empirical”. It is an adjective, indicating that something is “based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic”. By observation or experience means that the knowledge is obtained through the physical senses of one’s sense organs. We have a multiple number of sense organs not only the five which were indicated by Aristotle , sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, some animals can sense electrical or magnetic fields. Internal sensors send signals to the brain such as itch and pain, which are not always caused by external stimuli. Here we are concerned with those sensors that give us knowledge about the environment we live in and therefor tells us about the reality of our existence. When we talk about a sixth sense, we usually mean an imaginary capacity to sense a realm outside the ones we observe as real.

Individual senses are not perfect and sometimes wrongly interpreted or impaired and therefor we cannot consider anecdotal information as real but only that which is observed or experienced in general. Gravity is real, an empirical fact, because we can observe it and experience it, even if we don’t know what it actually is, it exists and is part of our reality.

What am I trying to get at? To prove that something is true and real we must demand empirical evidence to accept it. There is no other way. Philosophy and Logic can lead to a great discovery but they are only suggestions or guesses until we can confirm it by empirical means. Some of these suggestions and logical conclusions have been empirically proven and are then accepted as fact, but many are disproven or are still waiting.

Emperical is an adjective, it is not a verb or a noun, it cannot be false or imperfect by itself, it indicates the method by which knowledge is obtained, through the only senses by which we are connected to the reality of the environment we live in. These senses have been cleverly extended and given us a greater capacity to observe and experience to extend our knowledge.

Some people, such as psychics and parapsychologist insist that some people have ESP, extra sensory perception. Many have been researching and investigating for more than a century but none have been able to provide convincing empirical evidence that it exists. Many claims have been made. They have been investigated by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and found wanted or debunked. No evidence of a so-called 6th sense exists. In itself that is not proof that it doesn’t exist, perhaps it does, but until it is proven to exist one cannot use it to advance true knowledge. It is still a speculation.

The same is the case with religion, which frustrates many theists. Religious philosophy and logic, often very well put together, all start with the premise that a supernatural realm exists and then take it from there. We must however insist that they first provide empirical evidence that it does. The only method we have, to arrive at the truth, is through our well known existing senses. Things like “look around you” and “ the universe is finely tuned, therefor…….” do not do it and are also easily dismissed by applying logical arguments. Other attempts to use new scientific discoveries, such as in particle physics, by misinterpreting or misunderstanding the principles behind it, have also failed so far.

The conclusion we must make that ESP, Parapsychology, Supernaturalism, Numerologism, Religions (all of them), Ghosts, Spirits, Souls, Goblins, Superstitions, Aliens and so on, although they could be existing, must be put on the shelf until any of them are empirically, scientifically proven to exist, before we continue to believe in them.

PROOF OF EXISTENCE

7/9/2018

There are so many beliefs in this world, not only religious, but also non-religious ones, such as beliefs in astrology, UFOlogy, psychic ability (ESP), NDEs, conspiracy theories, numerology, ghosts, and more, which depend on the existence of a supernatural realm that it needs to be proven to exist before one can accept these beliefs as being true. We employ the following ‘methods’ to discover reality.

Science
Scientific, empirical (verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic), testable and observable methods, are the best means for determining what is real and what is imaginary. By using our senses and extensions thereof, using various technologies, we embark upon an ongoing, accelerating process that is self-correcting whenever new discoveries are made. As an example, we are able to observe gravity and measure its properties, and although we don’t yet fully understand it we do have definite proof of its existence.

There is a considerable amount of pseudo science where real science findings are distorted and misrepresented. Unwarranted conclusions are drawn or one theory is chosen out of many others so one must carefully check the sources to see if they are reliable and generally accepted by most of the academia as “proof.”

Philosophy
Philosophical speculations and theories which could lead to experiments, and great discoveries are, in themselves, not proof of anything until scientifically verified. Many philosophical ideas have turned out to be viable but many have not and must be disregarded. Ancient philosophers have given us great insights but their lack of scientific knowledge produced unviable philosophies, in many cases, such as the geocentric model of the cosmos proposed by Aristotle and Ptolemy.

Faith
Faith, which is belief in speculations and suppositions created in the brains of human subjects, is not reality. Humans have evolved a strong desire (instinct), an evolutionarily useful trait, to develop rituals to influence the powerful natural forces and to predict the future through heavenly observations. Rituals, such as praying and offering among many others, attempt to counter the fear of death and to promote wishful thinking. They are founded in emotions rather than knowledge.

Illusions
Illusions are distortions of the senses. There are many forms of illusions. There are optical and auditory illusions which sometimes are taken to be real and used as “proof” of the supernatural.

Delusions
Delusions are held with strong convictions even when superior evidence to the contrary is presented, Cognitive dissonance also plays a role here. Dreams, hallucinations (which can be natural or drug induced), spiritual experiences, mass-hypnoses, mass- hysteria and other delusions are perceived as “reality” but they are not proof of the existence of the supernatural.

In conclusion, the scientific method is the only method available to tease out reality. Before we accept any speculation requiring a supernatural explanation, we should first find scientific proof through the scientific method that this speculated phenomena exists. Otherwise, although philosophy is a useful endeavor that can lead to scientific discovery, we waste our time on Faith, Illusions and Delusions. We have no substitute for the scientific method.

Be sure to click on the RSS feed for some previous blogs or on the Archives which will access all the blogs I have written since Nov 2013. Check out the "HOME" page which list some chapters of the book “Why You Won’t Go To Hell” on the leftside. You can also use the homepage search box and type in any subject, then click on the Q. You might be surprised by what you'll find there.

WHY BOTHER

6/4/2018

The comments I often get when I explain why I am an unbeliever and a skeptic as far as the supernatural is concerned is: “Why do you write extensively explaining why, since there is no scientific evidence, the Supernatural is not proven to exist. Why not just let people believe what they want and be done with it”. Many also charge that I am attacking religion.
There are many more supernatural beliefs than just religion. Many non-religious people believe in Astrology, Aliens, UFOs, Numerology, Telepathy, Psychic Power, Ghosts and many more, relying on the unproven existence of a supernatural realm. They can do a lot of financial or mental damage to the individual. Individual beliefs, if they are unshakably strong, cannot be changed and can be classified as a mental disturbance called DD (Delusion Disorder, see my previous blogs), however most people are not totally deluded and can change their mind. Why bother to try to shake their beliefs? If I can convince only one person to seek legitimate medical help rather then rely on a quack selling “alternate”, often expensive, treatment, that could be fatal or if I can convince only one parent to seek help for their sick child and get medical attention rather than rely on prayer alone and save the child’s life, it’s all been worthwhile and I will feel justified in “attacking” faith in the “supernatural” beliefs in any form. I don’t want to sound narcissistic but I feel it is my mission and I hope that many of you, who feel the same way, will help me to spread the message by hitting the “Like” and “Share” buttons, when agreeing with my posts. Of course I am also interested in your comments and constructive criticisms since I have learned a lot from these in the past. Keep in touch!

Consciousness is a Mystery?

5/9/2018

Many scientists regard consciousness as a mystery that has not been solved. Theist use that excuse to proclaim that consciousness is part of a spirit or soul and that it is survivable after death to have an afterlife in Heaven or Hell, a man-made concept with no evidence. Neuroscience has established that consciousness is a function of, and depending on, a live, functional brain. Robert Epstein, senior research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, states “ There is nothing slightly mysterious about consciousness.”
https://medium.com/the-awl/the-simple-truth-about-consciousness-7b551473a171
Since Spirit and Soul are man-made concepts, (see: http://www.origin-of-religion.com/the-origin-of-spirit.html ). The theists assertion that consciousness and awareness, some how survive the death of the brain is wishful thinking. Brain death means consciousness and awareness gone. No afterlife.

WHAT DEMENTIA TELLS US

4/9/2018

The following is based on facts and observation and not speculation. We all have a sense of “self” based on awareness. When we wake up out of a deep sleep, i.e. slow-wave sleep (SWS) (1) we become aware of our environment through our senses and aware of “who we are” because of our memories, the two necessary components of establishing our identity. To recognize our “self” we need both. Problems arise when our senses or our memories are impaired. For example a person with total amnesia, would be aware of his/her environment but would have to accumulate new memories to establish a “self”.

Neuro–science is now advanced enough to be able to measure brain activity that is involved in our senses and memory. We now know, that awareness and consciousness are brain functions which slowly materialized in our early years when our brain developed. We all experienced that process and our first memories established our sense of “self”, our identity as a person. We can even locate the parts of the brain responsible for storing these memories and this knowledge is rapidly advancing. (2)

Dementia is a terrible curse. There are many different forms of dementia, and therefor the symptoms can be different. I want to discuss only one type, called Alzheimer’s disease, that can so far, only be diagnosed definitely by autopsy of the brain after death. (3). My mother and my grandmother suffered this fate. My mother, who was a very patient and loving person as well as very religious, went through all the stages mentioned in the literature and ended up as a vegetable. It was heartbreaking and very difficult to accept. What did we observe was that her awareness and self-identity slowly became more and more impaired as the brain deteriorated and her memories were slowly destroyed.

There are other forms of dementia were we cannot be sure whether it is destruction of the brain cells our impairment of access to memory is the cause but in Alzheimer’s, because of autopsies, we can establish that as a fact.

The only conclusion based on the scientific method of fact and observation of Alzheimer’s patients is, that although we do not know yet how the brain produces awareness and consciousness, they are totally depended on the material brain and that when the brain dies there is no awareness and memory possible, that we know as a fact, therefor an afterlife is a moot point.

Epilogue: There is no need to argue whether there is an intelligent designer, perhaps there is, although I doubt it. One can call energy or nature a “god”, it doesn’t change the above conclusion. The great need to overcome the avoidance of reality of death has spurred many ancient and current philosophers, to conjure up some method of avoiding death’s finality by invoking a supernatural realm where everything is possible. Some will argue that we posses a non-material soul or spirit, that is independent from our material brain. This is a pure speculative idea which developed from the historical fact that “breath” was considered a spirit that entered the baby when it took it’s first breath and the last breath, when dying, would leave the body to re-join the Great Spirit. The word “spirit” is actually derived from the Latin “spiritus”, meaning “breath”. One can find many mentions of breath being a spirit in other religions. The Bible has at least 8 references (see “origin of the spirit” on my website) to that effect.

Another speculation is, that your memories, which you need to be aware of yourself, could somehow be transferred to a supernatural medium or in the future to a mechanical device. Imagine that after transferring your total memory to such a device you discover that the machine, when becoming aware, absolutely believes it is you, but you know that can’t be the case. A duplicate cannot be “you”. There are many other problems with the idea of an afterlife in heaven, such as when babies die, do they grow up in heaven? What about mentally retarded people?

There are many supposition. None of them having evidence. They are philosophical constructions or pure fantasy. Notions such as “we are part of a supernatural universal awareness, were our consciousness came from and will return to” or the suggestions that quantum physics somehow indicates that we are part of a universal consciousness, by people who misunderstand or misrepresent the underlying physical processes, are wishful thinking. Extra ordinary claims need extraordinary evidence.

References:
1-(Schulz, Hartmut (2008). "Rethinking sleep analysis. Comment on the AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events". J Clin Sleep Med. American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
2-Consciousness and the brain, by Stanislaw Dehaene, Viking Press)
3-Ballard C, Gauthier S, Corbett A, Brayne C, Aarsland D, Jones E (March 2011). "Alzheimer's disease". Lancet.

Imagination & Delusion

3/21/2018

Humans have an unlimited imagination, which we inherited through our genes. It has been very important in our evolutionary success. We marvel at Science Fiction stories, Harry Potter, Superman and other fiction. Nature was bewildering, harsh and unpredictable and instead of feeling helpless our ancestors' imagination conjured up entities which could influence nature and could be approached through rituals and offerings.

We all have inherited, some to a higher degree than others, cognitive dissonance, the mental discomfort and psychological stress experienced by a person who simultaneously is facing two or more contradictory values, ideas or beliefs. To offset these feelings, we also all have, to some degree, the mental capacity for delusions, a mistaken belief that is held with strong conviction even when presented with superior evidence to the contrary. This also was probably a helpful trait during evolution since it is so widely spread. If a delusion, however is very strong it becomes a problem (see the symptoms as published by the APA)

Before science, a very, very recent development in our history, gradually showed us the reality of nature step by step, the need for believing in these fictional entities and the delusions that convinced people of their authenticity gradually decreased but the resistance to give up these comfortable myths is still very strong because of our genetic make-up, which changes at a slow evolutionary speed rather than the exponential speed that science is developing.

Science was developing at a slow speed before writing was invented and communication between generations was often by story-telling and very inaccurate. When writing was developed it became easier to transmit information from generation to the next one, but so were mistaken ideas. It must be remembered that writing was limited only to a few elites, and that even a couple of hundred years ago over 90% of the population was illiterate. Christian Church services in the middle ages were in Latin, a language that most people did not understand, and thus had to rely on the clergy for explanations, which could be consisting of very personal opinions. This gave the clergy, total unquestionable authority which was often cruelly enforced.

Only in the last few generations has general literacy been established. Science has now become available for the masses and flies in the face of our inherited delusional beliefs. Cognitive dissonance also is playing a big role. Depending on how strong these traits are in a person, science is often difficult to accept and replace beliefs, therefor pseudo-science is rampant, to counteract the mental discomfort of many people, when real science confronts their illogical beliefs.

We cannot wait for slow evolution to override the inherited tendencies, but education can do the trick and overcome our primitive instincts, as we have done with other ones, to some extent, although not completely erased, such as rape and murder.

Since different religions in the world often create great conflicts, even between factions of the same religion, it is imperative that we built a secular world society, governed in a democratic way without the influence of non-elected religious leaders or other ideological rulers who influence current governments in many parts of the world today.