Intellect the Cause of Religion?
A Connection Between Intellect, Anxiety and Religion
Religion consists of various symbols, practices and beliefs designed to create a relationship with the supernatural, the supernatural in the case of most religions being the Gods. Religion also protects those who practice it, the supernatural powers; God protects his/their worshippers. Think about this, the basis of religion is to ease fear. Thus the first part of the argument looks quite entirely reasonable. Religion's reason for existence seems to be to allay those fears of the unknown, to create the familiar and the safe out of the unsafe and chaotic world; to form a set of protocols and rituals so as to establish a relationship with God/s.
In turn it makes sense also that Intellect gives rise to anxiety, to those fears. The greater the intellect the more that is perceived and the greater the number of troubles that can be detected and perceived which in turns causes anxiety. This later on causes religion to rise, organized religion at least to help combat the anxiety caused by intellect itself. In a sense Religion was originally the enemy of intellect, at least in Western society it seems like that is how it developed, perhaps that accounts for how often the intellect is undervalued in modern society?
Anyways...all of this is of course just simply theory, I don't think it says of anything negative regarding Religion only an interesting theory about how religion began. This is something that I find quite interesting indeed, and hope that you will find it just as interesting. Please if you thought that this was an interesting topic please comment and tell me so, I will write more on anthropology and culture. This isn't terribly well developed only because...it's just a theory, just an idea, it just happened to be one that I felt the need to share and see what others think of it.
Published by Christian K. Martinez
Christian K. Martinez is a college student majoring in anthropology. His writing has been published by AlienSkin Magazine and Kobold Quarterly. View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentSo, the thing that differentiates us a successful species, reason, driven by curiosity, defeated by lack of available knowledge about the universe, drove humans to surmise the presence of invisible intentional agents called gods as causes for the effects they observed but could not understand. Now, If one believes that these agents did control these factors ( rain, disease, moon, sun, etc.) how better to manage and control them than by asking them, begging them, bargaining with them, or just giving in to them and …… yes, worshiping them as a means of influencing them? Thus giving you some level of control over them. Control over the environment, just like the ancestors had been positively rewarded for and thrived because of it. Curiosity, and problems solving is part of our nature and gods and worshiping them provided the explanation for things and a level of control over them, thus improving our survival.
However, it was impossible for early humans to understand everything. The level of knowledge available to early humans ( lack of scientific knowledge) about disease, why it rained, why the sun shown, why the moon moved and changed, etc, etc. produced a level of anxiety and fear in humans because they did not (indeed, could not) understand these cause /effect pairs – so : with their imagination and dream experiences, they projected and surmised the presence of intentional agents – who controlled those things which were beyond their understand. Thus the rise of gods and spirits as explanations for all those things not readily understandable. This explanation removed the fear and anxiety caused by the “not understanding†situation they found themselves in. This solution, to the problem of “why†or “how†calmed them and satisfied them emotionally by removing the feeling of stress, anxiety, and fear about the otherwise unknowable things.
Curiosity was positively correlated with survival and thus through evolution, became a biological trait of the successful species. Curiosity creates a desire to know and to understand. Curiosity is satisfied by discovery and conversely, creates a negative motivation by producing anxiety and fear when something is not understood. Humans are naturally rewarded by knowing and understanding something and are fearful and anxious when they do not. This is still true today.
Here is a slight variation of your idea about intellect causing religion:
my theory about why theism arose in human culture: as a byproduct of our successful strategy to control the environment with enhances survival.
Essentially, The survival of the fittest: survival is enhanced the more you can control ( or manage) the local environment, the more control you can exercise over the environment, the higher your chances of survival and thriving. To control, you must understand – you must know cause and effect, and be able to predict outcomes and identify causes so as to manipulate them. Humans who could do this were favored and succeeded over those who did is less well. This was all part of problem solving and pattern recognition like Tracking and hunting animals, planting seeds, avoiding poisons, etc. etc. The development of reason and the larger brain.
Curiosity is a motivator for understanding. Humans who were curious were more successful than those who were not. Curio