I don't do bandwagon topics often, but I'm bandwagoning today.
The question du jour appears to be: What's up with faith-based thinking?
Well I've got a paradigm to try out on you guys.
Check it out. Subscribe to it if it impresses. Shoot it down if it does not.
Hey, it's all good. :)
I've exerted considerable effort in my own life attempting to keep one foot planted in faith, and another planted in reason, and attempting to understand the interplay of the two in the thinking of human beings, most selfishly the one pecking away at the keys here.
One question has always interested me: Is the numinous, the sense of contact or closeness to the divine, the participatory awe, avant-garde or atavistic, in evolutionary terms?
The answer is important -- it determines whither the future -- toward reason, or toward religion?
Instinct as basis for Religion -- Or Reason?
Evidence of religion predates evidence of reason by, oh, thirty thousand years minimum. This might suggest that faith is a rudimentary form of cognition...but we should consider this more closely.
Alrighty, so what do we know?
- Animals are instinct-driven
- Higher primates, too.
- Apes have some instinct, as well.
- Supposedly, humans do not.
So, from simple to more complex species, we perceive a diminution of the role of instinct. Many times I have wondered the validity of this presumption, but I see now that it is in fact valid.
Incremental replacement of instinct with learning behavior
- For a 100% hardwired creature, behavior is a matter of fulfilling programming; what cognition exists is dedicated to execution of a precoded game plan.
- In niches were more complex behavior is required and supported, more resources are allocated to randomizing combinations of information, instinctive and learned, and experimentation.
- This is another execution-driven behavior -- experimentation. A wide range of creatures engage in it, for example parrots.
- There is another half of this -- learning through observation of the experience of other individuals, even of other species. Elephants are an exquisite example of this; the untimely demise of the matriarch is a grave turn of events for a herd of pachyderms.
- This is the competitive advantage of learning -- the ability to observe, internalize profitable lessons and reject demonstrably inefffective ones in acts of increasingly sophisticated judgment. This sets up a salutary cycle over generations, so long as the mechanism for storing and distributing survival learning strategies is conserved.
- Perceptive, adaptive creatures capable of making value judgments move to the top of the food chain. One could make the call that this applies to organizational competition, as well, so long as meritocratic (as opposed to monopolistic) dynamics prevail.
The prevalence of reason
- Those species that have (a) the most learning capacity, (b) the strongest powers of judgment, and (c) the most efficient means of communicating lessons among individuals, especially from older to younger generations have a masterful advantage over other competitors.
- The result of this salutary cycle is the gradual reduction in instinctive behavior, producing a cognitive vaccuum when the mind is not engaged in active problem-solving, learning, communication, teaching, etc.
..and the persistence of faith
13. The human mind has enormous powers to fill random information, even its absence, with patterns. By many accounts, that's what happens when we dream.
It's also what happens in religious experience.
Who are the most religious people? Who the least?
- Per this model, both groups are composed of those persons with exceptional learning behavior. That's right, really religious people are smart, too, at least by the numbers.
- The difference is whether a person has the propensity (through native talent or enculturation) to toggle one's learning behavior on and off.
The Atheist Mind
A perfectly atheistic mind, per this model, is a person who is locked in practical problem-solving mode, a drive to observe phenomena, take in the observations and arguments of other individuals and assess them, and communicate his or her own lessons to others widely. The atheist cognition values perception, analysis, judgment, and clear, precise and frequent communication of information. The purely atheist world is realtime, and the world's information is always changing.
Where you will find this model of atheism -- mostly, in theory.
The Theist Mind
In contrast, the theistic mind, per this model, is a person who is locked out of practical problem-solving mode, is locked out of direct observation phenomena, cannot take in the observations and arguments of other individuals, cannot assess them, and cannot communicate his or her mystic experience to others. The theist cognition values intuition, acceptance, submission, and a deeply personal and private relationship with information. The purely theist world is timeless, and speaks of universal and eternal truths that cannot be derived, only revealed and never shared.
Where do you find such persons? Well, you don't, same as the perfectly atheist intellects.
Synthesis
Every person in this world has a switch -- one that works imperfectly -- alternating between theistic and atheistic tendencies.
It is highly doubtful that either extremity is valuable, but it is clear that much of the success of human civilization is attributable to high levels of practical problem-solving activity that, simply put, just don't happen in a state of pure theistic mentation. The theistic world is one where all actors are at inner peace --- then swiftly die for want of the practical means to support their rich inner lives.
On the other hand, a world of purely atheistic actors is utterly competitive, utterly hierarchical, a Hobbesian contest for information, authority and influence. What does occur is a powerful mechanism for securing and transmitting lessons, a powerful tool that in the service of absolute goals produces significant benefits to Humanity.
From the one mind comes inspiration and values, even of the secular variety -- the making sense of the insensate.
The other provides the means to effect change, and validate the worth of the revelations that come to each and every one of us in our dreams...or our nightmares.
A Potentially Good Combination
Reflection on accumulated observations in isolation from others leads to clearer recognition of patterns, even new patterns -- innovations that can then be tested out for validity as survival strategies. Regardless of how brilliant other species may be, there is not one creature other than man that voluntarily goes into secluson for purposes of contemplation.
This is a synthesis of the theistic and atheistic mind.
A Potentially Bad Combination
A regime of sensory overstimulus, multiple and persistent repetition, and affirmation by recognized authority persons and iconic totems can overcome any individual resistance to the message being imparted, given sufficient time and resources.
It does not matter if the lesson is erroneous at face value.
It's how advertising and propaganda and cult psychology operate.
Coincidentally, of course, it is how torture works, as well, though the purpose in that instance is to derive knowledge.
Wrap
Our civilization, our very nature, is a derivative of the most elemental dialectic of all -- the bipolar strategy by which the human mind has dealt with the slow ebb of instinct from our brains, leaving in its place the most powerful RAM processor ever designed.
The only problem -- there is no instruction manual, on account the product is still in beta testing.