The “GOD” Part of the Brain

Why are spiritual beliefs and religious practices so common worldwide? Mathew Alper says it’s because we have a god part of our brain that is genetic. I just finished The “GOD” Part of the Brain, and it’s now one of my favorites. Here’s a very brief summary.

We can assume that any characteristic, function, behavior, etc. that is universal in a species is genetic. In humans, that includes, spoken language, math ability, music, and religion, among many others. Each of these capabilities can be traced to a specific brain area and to specific genes.

Every culture throughout human history has developed religious beliefs, including a perception of reality as physical (tangible, corporeal, able to be sensed and validated) and spiritual (outside physical laws, permanent, fixed, eternal). It must be assumed that this propensity for spiritual perceptions and beliefs is genetic and generated from the brain, just as all other universal human attributes are. If it were a learned belief and behavior, it would not be found as universally throughout the world.

Many languages, for example, have come and gone in numerous regions, but the impulse to create a language has existed everywhere. The same is true for religion and spiritual beliefs. Many variations have come and gone throughout human history, but the impulse to create religious rituals and spiritual beliefs is persistent. We are innately predisposed to believing in a spiritual reality, and such beliefs seem to override our capacity for critical thinking. Such beliefs arise and persist in spite of no physical evidence of a spiritual reality.

Ritualistic religious behaviors reinforce spiritual beliefs, promote social bonding, and give meaning and structure to peoples’ lives. When ritualistic behaviors are dysfunctional, they are considered an obsessive/compulsive disorder.

We are the only species that is aware of our own existence and the possibility of our non-existence (death). Our brain is also capable of remembering the past and contemplating the future. That aids survival but also leads to anxiety. We know death is inevitable. Before science invented medicine, every injury and illness brought dread and uncertainly. To a lesser degree, they still do. To survive this existential tension, we evolved a spiritual component that imagined the possibility of superseding our finite existence and death. With the evolution of math, we evolved the capacity to perceive infinity and eternity. Spirituality gave us the possibility of attaining them. With the invention of a “forever parent” (god), we gained the illusion of permanent protection. God is not a force or entity “out there,” but is an internal coping mechanism that evolved as part of our evolving brain. Suppressing anxiety about death is so powerful it continues in spite of many horrific consequences of religion. Trying to convince someone who is “hardwired” to believe in a spiritual reality that it doesn’t exist may be futile. Especially when everyone they know believes the same thing.

But what if we could teach people to reason through their spiritual delusions? What if they could understand that God is a cognitive phantom? That our religious histories are just neurological programming that served to quell overwhelming anxiety in the beginning of human evolution. Natural selection does not care about what is real or true, only what increases survivability. Can we survive now without spiritual delusions? Do we have anything to gain?

If God exists and we are eternal, what is there to lose by pondering God’s non-existence? What would our existence be like without God? Wouldn’t the universal goal of happiness continue? Why would humans ever seek to be less happy or to suffer more pain just because we realize God is a fantasy? And isn’t the key to happiness the acquisition of knowledge, especially self-knowledge?

If spirituality and religiosity are inherited biological impulses, we should examine them and learn as much as possible about them. What are their drawbacks and negative impacts? How can we maximize their positive aspects? Religious practices have included barbaric practices, including the sacrificing of children, hatred of “others,” degrading customs, harmful superstitions, torture, discrimination, aggression, war, etc. Whenever a group believes that only its beliefs are the truth, different beliefs are usually viewed as a threat that must be opposed. Such religious tribalism often leads to violent and bloody conflict.

If we could learn to view religiosity as nothing more than a genetic impulse, we could better resist its destructive influences. If we could dispose of our primitive ideologies that teach us to oppress women and homosexuals and encourage us to discriminate against anyone taught a different set of fairy tales, we could focus on minimizing intolerance, antipathy, and war.

Religion has acted as a constricting force, constantly trying to obstruct the flow of any information it construes as a threat to its own obsolete ideology. It confines us, limits our field of vision, and binds us within a narrow box. We need to look outside of religion for what is acceptable, what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot say or think.

We don’t need to eradicate religiosity all together, just resist its excesses. The religious tribalism that may have helped early humans survive is now a threat. We now need global harmony, equality, tolerance, compassion, and forgiveness. It’s time for religious leaders to develop a religious constitution embracing universally accepted spiritual principals and condemning any killing. Perhaps embracing our limited life span rather than the delusion of immortality will allow us to make the most of our brief existence and appreciate our unique capacity to enjoy, aspire, hope, dream, and love. Our earth’s history is little more than a chronicle of mass extinctions. As Albert Einstein said, “I do not know what weapons will be used to fight World War III, but World War IV will surely be fought with sticks and stones.”