Why people turn to religion and cults
Feb. 15th, 2006 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI'm going to rewrite this piece to be more balanced, but I'll leave this entry stand because to alter it could cause some of the replies lose their context.
I've often wondered why people are attracted to religion or other wacko beliefs. Often the weirder and more impossible something is, the more attractive it is. It is difficult to understand what drives that. It seems to me that if such insane, faith-driven beliefs were eliminated the world would be a much better place.
Recently I was listening to a series of interviews with people who became drawn into cults and it brought up that old puzzle again. Why would people believe believe in such delusional things as a guy professing to be god incarnate? Why would people believe that chanting prayers opens a path to heaven? Why would people believe mystical waters would cure them of anything that ails them? Why would people idolise a 2,000 year old book of superstitious ravings?
I think I now understand part of the answer to the puzzle.
These people want desperately to believe that they are special or their immediate world is amazing. They have lost the sense of wonder they had when they were children and things now look dull and ordinary to them.
Many TV shows and movies and books offer the excitement of something special -- the main character is a king or a princess or some other person out of the ordinary and often they hold the key to saving the world or several people's lives. They have a mission, an important purpose. Often the story begins with the main character appearing to be a normal person.
Religious people want these things for more than just an escapist story -- they want to be special. So their god watches over them, or they are part of a small group of special people who are the chosen ones, or they are close to a mystical person with a revelatory message for the world, or they take part in secret rituals that give them impossible powers.
So why do they have this need? A child learns at an incredible pace and the world is full of amazing things at every turn. But, for reasons I don't entirely understand, most people gradually stop learning and this causes them to become bored with the world and their place in it. They long for the excitement they had as children when they could drop a ball and find to their utter astonishment that it bounced back up again! They want to feel again that their world is special and that they have a central part to play in it. But that has gone, leaving a drab, boring world of disappointment.
Why have they lost their sense of wonder? It may be partly due to the change in some neural receptors that happens as we get older. The receptors change in structure so that learning happens more slowly. (See Scientific American "Building A Brainier Mouse" April 2000.) Or it may have something to do with the way a bored demeanour is fashionably cool in most societies. Or it may be that school often teaches kids that learning is not fun, but boring. (I'll never forget one teacher saying "You're not here to have fun. You're here to learn." That was so stupid -- fun is the brain's way to entice us to learn.) Whatever the reason, most people actively resist learning as they grow older and this produces dreadful boredom. To compensate many turn to some kind of harebrained notion (oftentimes the weirder the better) to make them feel special and bring back the excitement they once felt. (I wonder if this may be part of the reason behind the mind-deadening chants and rituals, and the importance of giving over your thought processes and critical powers to your leader: it makes the world even more boring, and paradoxically makes the cult or organisation seem even more special and exciting in contrast.)
The sad thing is that such delusions are not necessary. All that's needed is to continue learning. The real world is even more astonishing and exciting than it was when you were young. We all live in the most extraordinary, scary, wonderful, exciting time in history. There are more geniuses than ever before; more knowledge, more music, more art, more literature than ever before.
Want amazing? You are the end result of an unbroken line creatures evolving in unpredictable ways over hundreds of millions of years, and these other animals around you (crows, chickens, dogs, horses, pigs, dolphins, lizards, snakes, fish, and probably the ants, butterflies, and amoebas too) come from the same ancestor. They are in a very real sense your brothers and sisters.
Want weird? You are a walking city of single-celled animals, and the ones that comprise your brain connect together to form a slow, but massively parallel computer where some of its output signals feedback into itself in such a way as to produce conscious thought.
Want special? We are all made of chemical elements which were created by fusion reactions inside stars then dispersed through space when those stars exploded, and now these clumps of stardust have evolved into us, these tiny fragile bits of the universe, who are the universe understanding itself.
Want cool? The computer on your desktop is made up of billions of switches, each having only two positions: on or off. All the wonderful things that this device can do are accomplished by cascading series of switches in complex arrangements.
Want wonderful? The brains of the people who design desktop computers are basically the same as yours. You and I -- any normal person -- can understand how a computer works. You and I and all the humans on this planet, have extraordinary minds... if we decide to use them.
The real world is a truly astonishing place. There is no need to construct delusional religions and superstitious nonsense. There is more than enough wonder right here.
I've often wondered why people are attracted to religion or other wacko beliefs. Often the weirder and more impossible something is, the more attractive it is. It is difficult to understand what drives that. It seems to me that if such insane, faith-driven beliefs were eliminated the world would be a much better place.
Recently I was listening to a series of interviews with people who became drawn into cults and it brought up that old puzzle again. Why would people believe believe in such delusional things as a guy professing to be god incarnate? Why would people believe that chanting prayers opens a path to heaven? Why would people believe mystical waters would cure them of anything that ails them? Why would people idolise a 2,000 year old book of superstitious ravings?
I think I now understand part of the answer to the puzzle.
These people want desperately to believe that they are special or their immediate world is amazing. They have lost the sense of wonder they had when they were children and things now look dull and ordinary to them.
Many TV shows and movies and books offer the excitement of something special -- the main character is a king or a princess or some other person out of the ordinary and often they hold the key to saving the world or several people's lives. They have a mission, an important purpose. Often the story begins with the main character appearing to be a normal person.
Religious people want these things for more than just an escapist story -- they want to be special. So their god watches over them, or they are part of a small group of special people who are the chosen ones, or they are close to a mystical person with a revelatory message for the world, or they take part in secret rituals that give them impossible powers.
So why do they have this need? A child learns at an incredible pace and the world is full of amazing things at every turn. But, for reasons I don't entirely understand, most people gradually stop learning and this causes them to become bored with the world and their place in it. They long for the excitement they had as children when they could drop a ball and find to their utter astonishment that it bounced back up again! They want to feel again that their world is special and that they have a central part to play in it. But that has gone, leaving a drab, boring world of disappointment.
Why have they lost their sense of wonder? It may be partly due to the change in some neural receptors that happens as we get older. The receptors change in structure so that learning happens more slowly. (See Scientific American "Building A Brainier Mouse" April 2000.) Or it may have something to do with the way a bored demeanour is fashionably cool in most societies. Or it may be that school often teaches kids that learning is not fun, but boring. (I'll never forget one teacher saying "You're not here to have fun. You're here to learn." That was so stupid -- fun is the brain's way to entice us to learn.) Whatever the reason, most people actively resist learning as they grow older and this produces dreadful boredom. To compensate many turn to some kind of harebrained notion (oftentimes the weirder the better) to make them feel special and bring back the excitement they once felt. (I wonder if this may be part of the reason behind the mind-deadening chants and rituals, and the importance of giving over your thought processes and critical powers to your leader: it makes the world even more boring, and paradoxically makes the cult or organisation seem even more special and exciting in contrast.)
The sad thing is that such delusions are not necessary. All that's needed is to continue learning. The real world is even more astonishing and exciting than it was when you were young. We all live in the most extraordinary, scary, wonderful, exciting time in history. There are more geniuses than ever before; more knowledge, more music, more art, more literature than ever before.
Want amazing? You are the end result of an unbroken line creatures evolving in unpredictable ways over hundreds of millions of years, and these other animals around you (crows, chickens, dogs, horses, pigs, dolphins, lizards, snakes, fish, and probably the ants, butterflies, and amoebas too) come from the same ancestor. They are in a very real sense your brothers and sisters.
Want weird? You are a walking city of single-celled animals, and the ones that comprise your brain connect together to form a slow, but massively parallel computer where some of its output signals feedback into itself in such a way as to produce conscious thought.
Want special? We are all made of chemical elements which were created by fusion reactions inside stars then dispersed through space when those stars exploded, and now these clumps of stardust have evolved into us, these tiny fragile bits of the universe, who are the universe understanding itself.
Want cool? The computer on your desktop is made up of billions of switches, each having only two positions: on or off. All the wonderful things that this device can do are accomplished by cascading series of switches in complex arrangements.
Want wonderful? The brains of the people who design desktop computers are basically the same as yours. You and I -- any normal person -- can understand how a computer works. You and I and all the humans on this planet, have extraordinary minds... if we decide to use them.
The real world is a truly astonishing place. There is no need to construct delusional religions and superstitious nonsense. There is more than enough wonder right here.
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-15 07:51 pm (UTC)The point of religion is not always about what you perceive is "rational". A lot of people have been cured of cancer or put their cancer in remission because they believe in themselves, or a God, or crystals, or whatever. What people choose to believe, if it doesn't hurt me or others, is none of my business. I do not care for religious people who force their beliefs upon others, or view their small corner as the only "chosen people" or whatever. However, I also despise people who do not have a religion and choose to berate others for believing in one.
Perhaps if you want to understand why someone chooses a religion, you should talk to someone instead of passing judgment on them. In the meantime, I have decided to unfriend you as I am feeling that we don't really have anything in common. Good luck on your continued learning experiences!
Take care.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-15 11:08 pm (UTC)I have always had many good friends who are intelligent, pleasant people. That is what has always puzzled me. Why do such people believe in things that are so easily shown to be myths? If only stupid, intellectually lazy people opted for religion then there would be no puzzle at all, but many very smart people let themselves get taken in by the craziest notions. Why is that? It has always stumped me.
You are a case in point. I know you are intelligent and a good person. I have read a lot of your posts in the past and delighted in your sensibilities. Yet you believe people have had their cancer cured or put in remission by their belief. No well designed study of this has ever shown any effect of belief on illness, and there have been many studies on it. Do you see what I mean? It would be wonderful if it was true, and I can understand people wanting it to be so. But how is the leap then made to believing it?
I know my piece is not the whole answer to the puzzle. That's why I wrote "I think I now understand part of the answer to the puzzle." But I think I found a significant piece. It seems to explain some of the more odd things, like a friend of mine, a wonderful, gentle, smart guy, who fervently believes in ghosts and that aliens walk among us. He is not mentally ill and he is not stupid. So why does he believe in such crazy notions without real evidence?
As to why I worry at such things, I have nothing against people who are religious who don't hurt others. The trouble is that faith allows people to believe things without facts and has led in the past to truly awful events, where basically good people were able to rationalise away terrible things because of shonky beliefs (slavery is a perfect example, war is another). Most of the evil in the world is committed in the name of faith and greed. This is a very real problem and one that we have to solve. I've always wondered if there is a solution to it. I don't think my piece is it, but I think it identifies a large piece of the puzzle.
I long for the day when people get along with one another simply because they understand it is the most sensible way to live.
I'm sure we have a lot in common, and I understand your annoyance. :) At least you have caused me to look again at rewriting this piece so that my intentions are clearer. And I'm grateful for that.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 12:13 am (UTC)Considering your response, I will reinstate our LJ friendship (gosh this all seems so 4th grade! :D) and welcome your comments and future posts.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-16 01:13 am (UTC)Sorry about the hassle. I should have at least let the radio program on cults fade a bit before posting, but at the time I felt so excited that I'd found a big part of something that had puzzled me since I was a kid. No excuse though. :)