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How Language Creates and Sustains Religion

Trafford Publishing

Contents

One A Quest For The Source Of Religion................................................1Two Can Animals Think And Reason Without Language?....................................22Three The Brain At Work...............................................................40Four The Relationships Between Thought And Language...................................53Five Language-Mediated Thought Versus Innate Neurological Thought.....................68Six Social Animals and A Theory Of Mind...............................................84Seven Ordinary Belief And Religious Belief............................................112Eight Religious Behavior And Ritual...................................................134Nine The Conservation Of Belief.......................................................149Ten Predicting And Planning...........................................................165Eleven Preconscious Control Of Behavior...............................................180Twelve Language, Persuasion And Proselytization.......................................196Thirteen Summary And Conclusions......................................................215

Chapter One

The Universality of Religion

In his book The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin wrote, "A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be pervasive." Artifacts such as cave drawings and grave goods attest to the presence and the importance of some form of religion among Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon Homo sapiens as early as forty thousand years ago. Such artifacts indicate that religion has been a major force in human groups since well before the end of the Stone Age. Some scholars give major credit to religion for the rapid ascent of the human species to its dominance over all of the creatures on Earth today. Whether this is so or not, unquestionably religion has been an important personal and cultural/societal phenomenon among all human groups in every age and in every location since long before recorded human history.

Unfortunately, there can only be speculation about the origin of religious rituals and beliefs in the Paleolithic era, a time long before the invention of writing. From its very beginnings the importance of religion within society has waxed and waned but it has never completely vanished. The practical value of the time and effort that individuals spend observing religious ritual has often been questioned. Still, some form of religious ritual is widely practiced in all societies, from the most primitive tribes in remote regions of Africa, and South America to the most sophisticated of North American, European, and Asian societies.

Over the years various societies have seen resurgences of fervent fundamentalist religion after quiescent periods. The United States was founded in the seventeenth century by a number of groups that lived in devoutly religious colonies. By the middle of the eighteenth century, about the time of the American Revolution, deism and the moderation of religious fundamentalism held sway among the American elite, including many of the framers of the Declaration of Independence. Unitarianism became popular in this era. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the trend returned to a more orthodox form of religious belief and practice. This more intense religiosity prevailed until the middle of the twentieth century, when secularism became popular. In the second half of the twentieth century, there was, once again, a revival of fundamentalist religion. Religious fundamentalism has become a major social and political force in the United States today.

Vestiges of beliefs that were central to ancient religions, such as astrology, shamanism, pantheism, animism, and paganism, remain popular and potent to this day. Aspects of these ancient religions survive as incidental features of mainstream religions of today. Customs such as decorating Christmas trees; praying to saints; lighting candles; faith healing; celebrations around the times of the winter solstice or the vernal equinox; tea leaf reading; attaching predictive symbolism to various events; and many superstitions, can be traced back to much earlier religions or religious practices.

Many who disdain established religions or claim to be atheists can still be highly spiritual and superstitious with regard to their behavior. Some of those who eschew traditional religions, with their pompous ceremonies, demands for normative behavior, and anachronistic beliefs, nonetheless subscribe to new-age religious notions that embrace the energy output of vortices the mystical power of pyramids. Wicca and homeopathy are both being practiced among a minority of people. Some people reject traditional religions but yet subscribe to occultism, alternative medicine, or cosmic humanism.

What is the explanation for religion? What is its source? Are specific beliefs or the varieties of modes of worship and rites determined and demanded by God? Did religion simply begin and continue because it is, in many ways, a useful aspect of human culture? Or has some evolutionary development resulted in a predisposition for human religion? How did religion arise in the first place, and what accounts for its extraordinary staying power? Such are the questions that this book will explore and seek to answer.

The Mystery of Religion

Well-argued criticism by skeptics such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, has drawn the public's attention to contradictions, anomalies and clear evidence of self-serving human intent in the origination and redaction of scripture. This has sparked doubt as to whether there is any divine input whatsoever in scripture. Such criticisms are borne out by carefully documented textual analyses of the revered scriptures themselves. In addition, there is considerable unassailable evidence of evolutionary and genetic processes as well as discoveries in archaeology and paleontology that cannot be reconciled with scripture or religious dogma. Critics point to cruel practices that have been carried out in the name of every religion at various times in the past. Such criticism, however, has had little impact on believers. The practices and beliefs of religions continue to thrive in all parts of the globe and in all sectors of society.

Evolutionary psychologists and biologists generally hold that a behavioral trait that is enduring and nearly universal among all members of a species is innate in the sense of it being a direct or an indirect consequence of some evolved genotype. Flinching in response to a sudden unexpected movement, an aversion to snakes, a tendency to panic in the presence of a predator-these are not learned behaviors. Some theorists hypothesize that religion could be latent behavior that in some indirect way has been genetically coded to spontaneously develop when circumstances warrant.

A problem with this thesis is that religion and religious behavior are vague and ill-defined terms. Religion can encompass belief in god or gods that are either anthropomorphic or ineffable, reincarnation, astrological influences, a variety of superstitions, the powers of pyramids and...