I read this article yesterday at NPR regarding the evolutionary advantages of belief in a god(s) and the supernatural. While I understand the argument, I do not agree.
Jesse Bering’s mother died of cancer on a Sunday, in her own bed, at 9 o’clock at night. Bering and his siblings closed her door and went downstairs, hoping they might somehow get some sleep.
It was a long, hard night, but around 7 a.m., something happened: The wind chimes outside his mother’s window started to chime.
Bering remembers waking to the tinkle of these bells, a small but distinct sound in an otherwise silent house. And he remembers thinking that those bells carried a very specific message.
“It seemed to me … that she was somehow telling us that she had made it to the other side. You know, cleared customs in heaven,” Bering says.
The thought surprised him. Bering was a confirmed atheist. He did not believe in any kind of supernatural anything. He prided himself on being a scientist, a psychologist who believed only in the measurable material world. But, he says, he simply couldn’t help himself.
Confirmed atheist? I suppose that means self-described atheist. In any case, there is a small part of me that understands this desire. However, when my father died last year, I did not have any of these supernatural leanings. I also do not see how having such leanings is beneficial to evolution. On a personal individual level, belief may be advantageous; yet, in the grand scheme of things, I fail to see it.
There are two parts of the equation I’d like to touch upon here: The belief in god as well as the belief in the supernatural, such as ghosts. Some people state that without god, there are no morals. I disagree for the following reason. Morals are innate, they are part of our societal instincts. Members of the non-human animal kingdom have proven this time and again. There is a huge advantage to following the so-called Golden Rule- treating others as we wish to be treated. Evaluating a situation and deciding what is right (as opposed to having a cut and dry set of rules to follow) is the key to true morality. Acting out of fear or to kiss the “ass” of an invisible bully is not truly moral behavior. Whether it be a god or a dead relative watching, one being good out of fear isn’t the optimal way to be good, in my opinion.
“Whether it’s a dead ancestor or God, whatever supernatural agent it is, if you think they’re watching you, your behavior is going to be affected,” he says.
True enough, yet that doesn’t make it an evolutionary benefit. And he goes on:
In fact, Bering says that believing that supernatural beings are watching you is so basic to being human that even committed atheists regularly have moments where their minds turn in a supernatural direction, as his did in the wake of his mother’s death.
I’m not so sure about that. It may be accurate in specific cases, but not so much for every nonbeliever. The idea of someone watching every single thing you do, from masturbation to hanging out with friends, is – quite frankly – creepy. I wouldn’t find it comforting in the slightest. If I’m in a bad situation, I try to think of the best reasonable way to get out of it rather than finding comfort in the possibility that someone or something is watching over me.
Every animal, including humans, has a moral center and that is what is advantageous to evolution. There is an innate desire to live in a society where people treat one another as they would like to be treated. It just makes good sense.
