It is no secret that we are born to believe in god.
The second thing we learn in our childhood after speech is our parent's religious views, this is why patients with amnesia forget their family, friends, everything about their lives before forgetting god and its religious aspect. Plus of course, religion in all its forms has been around for many years, so it's encrypted in our history genes.
Research shows that children have a naiive way of reasoning that leads them to supernatural conclusions whenever they think about how the world was made. As they grow older, their reasoning becomes more rational, and so the tendencies to supernatural beliefs takes a religious aspect.
Professor Pascal Boyer wrote in a recent article: “From childhood, humans form enduring and important social relationships with fictional characters, imaginary friends, deceased relatives, unseen heroes and fantasised mates."
Reseachers also found that all this "supernatural" action takes place in a specific region in the brain that is linked to spirituality.
In short, we as species, are programmed to believe in god.
Programmed. Does that mean god programmed our brains to believe in him? Or does it mean that our brains generates a belief in god? The great religion vs science debate.
(..To be continued)
If only parents respond to their children's inquiries-on the subject of god and the universe-by "No one knows, but maybe one day we will", then kids will have the choice to decide on their own whether to embrace religious beliefs or not.
ReplyDeleteImposing your own beliefs on your children imo is stripping them of their personal right to decide on their own whether to abandon their childhood imaginary friend, or exchange with the grown-ups one: God.
Your comment "inspired" to research correlation between personality/identity disorders and religous families... I didn't find what I was looking for actually! (religious figures are a different story)
ReplyDeleteBut...what i did find is a survey confirming that people with a strict religious god-fearing upbriging are more likely to develop OCD than people whom religion was not forced upon them.
So it's also biologically/psychologically more healthy for parents to use your "no one knows, but maybe one day we will" instead of forcing a certain religion into their - already too fragile- lives