Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Phil HL - The God Gene
- What is it about?
- a specific gene that predisposes
people to spiritual/mystical
experiences
- religious behaviour due to a gene
- an evolutionary
advantage: spiritual people
tend to be more optimistic
- optimism: leads to
pyschological/physical
advantages - longer life
- products of reproduction & survival
- Darwin
- meme: a unit of cultural transition
- Religion is one of the most powerful of memes
- passed on through speech,
writing, gestures, rituals
- memes mutate & evolve
like genes do
- For
- Applies to observations of William James: People who find it impossible to believe
- explains persistence of religious beliefs
- Against
- Can the existence be studied empirically?
- Zimmer: based only on one study
- Polkinghorne: Theory is reductionist, only
justified with the simplest most basic
pyschical mechanisms involved
- Why would God create
people who cannot believe
in him and then punish
them?