Both language and religion are symbol systems, and both are human universals suggesting that the basis for both is innate. Language, unlike religion, has anatomical components, including the larynx, ears, hands, tongue, and so on. In addition, language is strongly associated with specific areas of the brain (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas). At the present time, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists have been looking more closely at how the brain functions with regard to religion. Religion is a human universal and that suggests that, like language, it may be mediated by special structures in the brain.
In seeking to understand human evolution and the origins of religion, the starting point is the brain and particularly the structure and the function of the brain. In an article in Free Inquiry, Adam Neiblum writes:
“The ubiquity of religious belief is an effect of its genesis within the very structure of the human brain itself. Religion is part evolutionary bequest, just as bipedalism and the opposable thumb.”
At the present time, neuroscientists have not yet uncovered specific areas of the brain which are dedicated to religion. In his book Breaking the Spell: Religion and Natural Phenomenon, Daniel Dennett writes:
“It is still possible that we will find dedicated neural mechanisms for some aspects of religious experience and conviction, but the early forays into such research have not been persuasive.”
In his chapter on natural religion in The Big Questions, Robert McCauley writes:
“The human mind has no specific department for religion. Instead religions appear to be a by-product of various cognitive systems that evolved for unrelated reasons.”
In his book The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, Nicholas Wade writes:
“It could be that religious behavior itself does not require a dedicated brain region large enough to be detectable by present methods.”
Cross-cultural ethnographic studies show a great deal of variation in how religion is expressed in different cultures. This variation is seen in creeds (belief systems and the importance of believing in key concepts deemed vital to the particular religion), in ceremonial activities, and in religious codes regarding behavior and society. In his book The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies—How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths, Michael Shermer writes:
“Your culture may dictate which god to believe in and which religion to adhere to, but the belief in a supernatural agent who operates in the world as an indispensable part of the social group is universal to all cultures because it is hardwired in the brain, a conclusion enhanced by studies on identical twins separated at birth and raised in different environments.”
The human brain is, of course, quite different from the brains of other primates. Most obvious is its larger size and the fact that much of the brain growth takes place after birth. Much of the difference between human brains and those of other primates is found in the frontal lobe, the area of the brain related to complex thought such as planning and problem solving, conscious judgement and behavior control, emotions, and self-reflection, all of which can be related to religion.
One of the functions of the brain is to interpret the world outside of the body, a world which is first transmitted to the brain via touch, sight, and sound. The brain translates this confusing array of messages, ignoring some and prioritizing others, into some sort of meaningful perceptions. In an article in Free Inquiry, Nicholas Molinari writes:
“This human brain instinctively attempts to impose order out of chaos and randomness. Our ancestors, long gone and recently gone, with evolving brains tried valiantly—and most often simplistically—to explain and to organize what their senses brought to the table for mental digestion.”
Religion can be the filter through which the perceptions in the brain are translated into actions.
Patternicity
Patternicity refers to the brain’s tendency to find what may be meaningful patterns in the exterior world. The ability to see patterns had survival benefits for early human ancestors. Seeing the way in which the grass moved on the savanna, for example, could be a warning that a predator was present. Michael Shermer writes:
“Remember, the primary function of the brain is to run the body and help it survive. One way it does that is through association learning, or patternicity.”
Seeing the patterns of the clouds and the way the wind was blowing provided them with an ability to see weather patterns. Patternicity is, however, about correlations and probability, not causation.
In interpreting patterns, there are two basic types of error; Type I error in cognition which is a false positive: believing something to be real when it is not, and Type II error in cognition which is a false negative: believing that something is not real when it is. Michael Shermer writes:
“Although true pattern recognition helps us survive, false pattern recognition does not necessarily get us killed, and so the patternicity phenomenon endures the winnowing process of natural selection.”
Seeing patterns in nature has immediate survival value and it is common to assume that patterns can predict future events. In many ancient civilizations, including the early civilizations in Mesopotamia and the later civilization in Greece and Rome, it was felt that the patterns of bird flights, smoke, and other natural phenomenon were warnings about future events.
As societies became larger with agriculture and the emergence of cities, a new kind of patternicity emerged: the conspiracy theory. Patterns involving perceptions of social interactions were now imaginatively interpreted to have meaning beyond the social interactions themselves. When filtered through the good-evil duality of some religions, these patterns were interpreted as “evil forces conspired against me/us.”
With regard to terminology, Joe Nickell, in an article in Skeptical Inquirer, writes:
“The ability to see pictures in random forms—as in clouds, tea leaves, and inkblots—is known as pareidolia; the images themselves are called simulacra.”
Agency
With agency, humans move beyond using patterns for understanding correlations and probability, and assign some kind of agent (some kind of being or force), often an agent with purpose and intelligence, as causing the patterns. People often see the world around them as having intentions, interests, and minds similar to their own. While the patterns observed in the clouds might help us predict coming weather conditions, with agency the clouds might be seen as living things or as evidence of the action of a particular god or spirit. Michael Shermer writes:
“There is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience that humans readily find patterns and impart agency to them.”
In his book The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature, Steven Pinker writes:
“Even a glance at human behavior suggests that people often think of causation in terms of hidden powers rather than just correlations.”
Animism was probably one of the earliest forms of agency. Even among the early humans, the soul was considered as something distinct from the physical body, yet important to human behavior. In a similar fashion, animals, natural phenomenon, and inanimate objects were viewed as having souls which motivated them. Animism is simply the worldview in which everything is alive, everything has a soul, and everything can communicate with humans.
As human societies grew larger, more complex, more agricultural, and more urban, the concept of gods evolved and often came to replace the souls in other things. In animism, for example, the river was seen as a living being with a soul, while in the god-centered religious view of more complex societies, there was a god who controlled the river.
The patterns which were interpreted as conspiracy theories, with agency became evidence of the will of the gods, both the good gods and the evil gods. Thus, natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and pandemics, are interpreted as being controlled by an evil god or as being controlled by the good god as a way of punishing people for not following certain rules of behavior.
Stories
Most religious traditions include stories—stories about mythological beings and events; stories that explain why certain things exist and provide the reasons for some human behaviors; stories about historical figures, real or imagined, which illustrate important moral guidelines. Research suggests that storytelling is not only a universal human trait, but it may be a result of the way the brain is wired. From an evolutionary point of view, storytelling must provide some kind of reproductive advantage.
In his book The Brain: The Story of You, David Eagleman writes:
“We can’t help but compose stories. From time immemorial people have watched the flights of birds, the movement of stars, the swaying of trees, and invented stories about them, interpreting them as having intention.”
David Eagleman also reports:
“This kind of storytelling is not just a quirk; it’s an important clue into brain circuitry. It unmasks the degree to which our brains are primed for social interaction.”
Near Death Experiences
Many religious traditions, but not all, include some sort of explanation of death and what happens to the human soul after death. Near death experiences where individuals come close to death are often used to bolster certain religious ideas, beliefs, concepts, and stories.
One of the sensations that is common in many near death experiences is the feeling of going down a dark tunnel or dark place with a bright light at the end. Studies done by the U.S. Air Force and Navy regarding g-force-induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) have found the same sensations. Michael Shermer reports that in G-LOC there are:
“…brief episodes of tunnel vision, sometimes with a bright light at the end of the tunnel, as well as a sense of floating, sometimes paralysis, and often euphoria and a feeling of peace and serenity when they came back to consciousness.”
According to several neuroscience studies these sensations are caused by hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation to the cortex.
The interpretations given to near death experiences by those who have experienced them tends to reflect the cultural and religious backgrounds of the individuals. Those who have monotheistic beliefs, for example, will see the workings of a god in the experience, while atheists will explain it in psychological terms.
Out-of-body Experiences
Out-of-body experiences (OBE) occur when there is the sensation that a person’s spiritual essence or soul is separated from the physical body and the person feels that they are viewing their own body from the outside. Out-of-body experiences are often a part of near-death experiences. This experience is used to support the religious concept of duality, that each person has both a physical body and a spiritual essence or soul.
Out-of-body experiences are fairly common during sleep and can also be associated with the trance states practiced in shamanistic ceremonies and in meditation. With regard to the brain, Rita Carter, in her book The Human Brain, reports:
“Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) occur when the internal representation of the body is out of kilter with the real body. This happens all the time in dreams, but when it happens during wakefulness it may be interpreted as a supernatural event.”
In out-of-body experiences, the brain is experiencing the world in a different way. Experiments using fMRI show that the visual cortex is inhibited during the out-of-body experience, and that the portions of the brain which are activated include the supplementary motor area, the cerebellum, the supramarginal gyrus, the inferior temporal gyrus, the middle and superior orbitofrontal gyri.
Dreams
Many researchers have speculated that the origin of religion in general and the concept of the soul in particular originated because of dreams. In his book In Gods We Trust, Scott Atran writes:
“In many cultures, dreams provide both inductive evidence and elements of interpretation for religious beliefs. Sometimes there are culturally fixed rules of interpretation.”
Neuroscientists studying sleep have found that there two types of dreaming: (1) emotionally charged dreams which occur during deep sleep and which are often forgotten upon waking; and (2) dreams which can be described as “virtual realities” which occur during REM sleep.
More Human Origins
Human Origins: Making Spoken Language Possible
Human Origins: The human face
Human Origins: Eyes
Human Origins: Homo rudolfensis
Human Origins: Cooperation
Human Origins: Protolanguage
Human Origins: Homo habilis
Human Origins: Fossil Evidence