Steve
Enjoying life!
Religion, politics, and sex are the three subjects that no one can ever agree on. Why? Because each is completely and utterly subjective when it comes to what constitutes good and what constitutes bad. You say God exists; she says God doesn't exist; they say God does exist, but only in the form of a giant, red-spotted mushroom. Hmmmm.....
Who is right? Or better yet who is wrong, when not any position can be disproven?
I read a great book once by a guy named Julian Jaynes called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It's real geek-speak and scientific, but in it he postulates that "God", as described in so many cultures as an active part of human civilization, was actually a manifestation that our brains produced as a protection/communication mechanism throughout our evolution. As consciousness developed in homo sapiens, the two halves of our brain did not communicate as efficiently through the corpus callosum, and subsidized by producing "voices" and "visions" that were more simplistic to transmit from hemisphere to hemisphere. He goes on to say that these "voices" and "vision" are what paved the way for the development of religion as we know it, based on nothing more than physiologic responses in our ancestors 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. He claims that these "god evoked" effects can be reproduced by severing the corpus callosum, and that such results were actually documented in early scientific research in the 18-20th centuries.
The book has TONS of references and examples to support the theory throughout history and through archaeological evidence. Anyone interested in an alternative opinion would probably find it interesting.
Who is right? Or better yet who is wrong, when not any position can be disproven?
I read a great book once by a guy named Julian Jaynes called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It's real geek-speak and scientific, but in it he postulates that "God", as described in so many cultures as an active part of human civilization, was actually a manifestation that our brains produced as a protection/communication mechanism throughout our evolution. As consciousness developed in homo sapiens, the two halves of our brain did not communicate as efficiently through the corpus callosum, and subsidized by producing "voices" and "visions" that were more simplistic to transmit from hemisphere to hemisphere. He goes on to say that these "voices" and "vision" are what paved the way for the development of religion as we know it, based on nothing more than physiologic responses in our ancestors 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. He claims that these "god evoked" effects can be reproduced by severing the corpus callosum, and that such results were actually documented in early scientific research in the 18-20th centuries.
The book has TONS of references and examples to support the theory throughout history and through archaeological evidence. Anyone interested in an alternative opinion would probably find it interesting.
