---

I dagens Kristeligt Dagblad kan man på:

<http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/337754:Udland--Professor--Det-
er-naturligt-for-os-at-tro>

og:

<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/richard-alleyne/6146411/Humans-e
volved-to-believe-in-God.html>
se at religionen skulle være en del af menneskets biologiske arv.

Jeg citerer fra Daily Telegraph:

=
Researchers, who have studied the way brains develop from childhood and
behave during religious experiences, think over the years religion has
become a survival instinct.

They suggest that groups of humans with religious tendencies benefited
from their beliefs, perhaps because they co-operated and so stood a
greater chance of survival.

They thrived compared to their atheist relatives and, after many years,
the instinct became passed on in our genes.

The findings challenge campaigners against organised religion, such as
Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.

He has long argued that religious beliefs result from poor education and
childhood "indoctrination".

Professor Bruce Hood, a psychologist at Bristol University, believes
religion is similar to children's belief in imaginary friends.

"Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning
that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world
works," he said.

"As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational
approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as
religion."

Professor Hood, who will present his findings at the British Science
Association's annual meeting this week, sees organised religion as just
one of many supernatural beliefs.

In one study he found even ardent atheists balked at the idea of
accepting an organ transplant from a murderer, because of a
superstitious belief that an individual's personality could be stored in
their organs.

"This shows how superstition is hard-wired into our brains," he said.

Other researchers have found a part of the brain that deals with
spirituality.

Andrew Newberg, professor of radiology at the University of
Pennsylvania, has used brain-imaging techniques to show that such
feelings are invoked by activity in "belief networks" operating across
the brain.

Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Ontario, has even used
powerful magnetic fields to induce visions and spiritual experiences in
volunteers.

Professor Pascal Boyer, an anthropologist at Washington University and
author of Religion Explained, said that atheism was probably the
unnatural way to be.

"Religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our
cognitive systems," he said. "By contrast, disbelief is generally the
work of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive
dispositions — hardly the easiest ideology to propagate."
==

Ja, er religion lige så nært knyttet til vores biologi som det er at
bevæge også armene når vi går, som om vi stadig gik på alle fire?

FUT dk.videnskab [alternative tråde kan naturligvis køre i andre
nyhedsgrupper].
--
Per Erik Rønne
http://www.RQNNE.dk
Errare humanum est, sed in errore perseverare turpe est