Higher Connections

MY THOUGHTS ON THE CONCEPT OF GOD

Okay, now it’s time to talk about God. I get it that it’s a touchy subject, because we’re all sensitive, emotional beings who like to think we are right about everything (including myself).

I am not going to pretend I have all the answers; I’m smart enough to realize I don’t, and I can readily admit that I could be wrong. As you can probably tell, I am not a religious (in the true meaning of the word) person. I do not subscribe to any of the major religions. I’ve just never bought into it—that there’s an imaginary man in the sky we have to pray to in order to be saved when we die. Yeah, not for me.

It makes sense that human beings want comfort and a sense that their lives mean something. They want to believe that if they follow all the rules they have been taught since they could barely walk, there will be a reward for them when they die—a lovely place commonly referred to as heaven. I get it. It’s nice to feel all warm and tingly inside while believing in something greater than ourselves.

However, there has been research that argues that the human brain is pre-wired to believe in some form of higher being. The below is an excerpt from The Independent from 2009.

A belief in God is deeply embedded in the human brain, which is programmed for religious experiences, according to a study that analyses why religion is a universal human feature that has encompassed all cultures throughout history. Scientists searching for the neural “God spot,” which is supposed to control religious belief, believe that there is not just one but several areas of the brain that form the biological foundations of religious belief.

The researchers said their findings support the idea that the brain has evolved to be sensitive to any form of belief that improves the chances of survival, which could explain why a belief in God and the supernatural became so widespread in human evolutionary history.