Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief by Wolpert Lewis

Author:Wolpert, Lewis [Wolpert, Lewis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571266722
Publisher: Faber
Published: 2011-02-03T05:00:00+00:00

Buddhism, in terms of belief, appears to be a religion. But, and this is crucial, there is no God. Buddha was an actual historical person and did not claim to be divine, but because of his inquiry into the nature of the world and self, he achieved enlightenment. Enlightenment is not meant to be mystical, but the way of clear-seeing rationality, and this is possible for any individual. By activating your Buddha-nature, it is suggested, you too will achieve enlightenment. In the Upanishads there is the claim that there can be a new dimension of self, which is the same holy power that sustains the whole world. From this, Buddhism emerged, and the Buddha taught that it was possible to gain release from the sufferings of life by essentially good and compassionate behaviour, combined with the sense of transience in meditation – clearly a causal belief. Buddhists view existence as a series of stages endlessly repeated, and there is reincarnation, but not necessarily a human-like afterlife. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is believed to be an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion; when the Dalai Lama dies, his soul is believed to pass into the body of an infant.

Religion is concerned with the supernatural, and thus involves forces and causes beyond our normal experience of nature, and this is something we need to understand. Humans will perhaps seek rewards through the supernatural if they are not obtainable by other means. Religion consists of very general explanations of existence, including the terms of exchange with a god or gods, for example, for good health. And since causal beliefs that promote survival are partly programmed by our genes, could that not also be true of some aspects of religious beliefs that promote survival, particularly those that relate to mystical forces, and even, perhaps to the gods themselves? In addition, religious beliefs provided gods or ancestors who could be prayed to, and who might help to solve problems. Again, those with such beliefs may have been better adapted for survival if they were less anxious and healthier. The evidence for this is not strong, and religion and health will be looked at below.

Religious experience often involves an approach to God or some other mystical presence that induces awe, or the experience of unity with God and a feeling of peace and being at one with the world. It is not easy here to distinguish between belief and emotion. There is no serious regret by those who have such experiences that they cannot fully describe their experience to others. The experience of intense emotion in a non-religious setting may be quite similar to a religious one. This may reflect the altered states of consciousness and hallucinations that are part of many cultural practices worldwide, and so may also be related to suggestibility and hypnosis. There is also the suggestion that religious experience is the result of creatively solving a personal problem relating to a crisis of identity.

Religion is almost always regarded by its believers as a way of obtaining help from supernatural powers, possibly from a god.

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