God, Religion, and the Sensory Mind

There is no evidence to indicate that animals believe in God. In the animal world of nature, life just IS. The world just IS.  There are no words; hence there are no questions and no need for answers.  Animals strive to survive; and have the concepts of “self” and “group” and “world”.  However, in the wordless animal world, the state of the world is simply accepted and not questioned. There are no thoughts to question the world around them. They can’t think about God.

There is some indication that animals have amazement or awe about the world around them.  Monkeys have been observed to sit and watch a sunset; an indication of appreciation of beauty in the environment.  Higher forms of animals certainly have advanced cognitive skills based upon the sense of vision.  They are continuously immersed in the “world” of nature and very attuned to it with their non-verbal cognition.  Elements in the world can almost certainly frighten, scare, soothe, entice, excite, or mislead them. They almost certainly have a strong appreciation for nature since they are immersed in it; but they also do not have the cognitive tools to ask questions about the world or to think about it. 

The concept of god appears to be uniquely human. The introduction of speech and associated verbally-based cognitive skills has enabled humans to formulate questions. The most amazing and fundamental unknown around us is the “world” – something that is fundamentally deep within our vision-based cognition.  In the Cambrian period, the sense of vision provided for the concepts of “self”, “group”, and “world”.  The concept of the “world” is embedded in the cognition that developed from the sense of vision.

Belief in God developed simultaneously with the development of our speech-based brain.  As shown in the diagram of the Sensory Mind, God and religion explain the vision-based “world” to us.  The concept of “God” is so strong and fundamental to the human mind that it is shown to occupy a space between both the right and left brains. 

Figure.  The concept of God is based upon our left brain questioning about the many unknowns in the right brain concept of “world”. The god concept is tied to some of the fundamental and earliest cognitive concepts in both the left and right brains. Religion is the set of left brain rules that are tied to belief in god.

Because of our ego, our separation from nature, and our thinking ability, we have an immense number of questions about the unknown – especially questions concerning the meanings of life and death.  The world is bewildering to us and our fundamental questions about it seem unanswerable.  Belief in God provides answers and/or beliefs about the “world”.  The human concept of God has roots in both the vision- and speech-based cognition.  The concept of “world” is embedded very deeply in the vision-based right brain; and the questions, answers, and God concept are likewise embedded in the earliest parts of our speech-based left brain.

The concept of God is deep and fundamental to both sides of our mind. It is tied to some of the earliest cognitive concepts of both the vision- and speech-based cognitions.

We also have a fear of dying.  Our concept of ego is so strong that we can’t imagine it dies with the body.  God and religion have given us belief systems to explain the unknown and to explain death to us.  This was a very early concept in our evolutional development.

Religion gives us answers about the meaning of life and gives us comfort about dying.

Because of our strong sense of “group”, we bond together with other humans and need rules to govern the inter-relationships.  God and religion have also met this need.  At first, such rules were relatively simple such as don’t harm others and don’t take from others.  It is likely that one of the earliest tenets of religious teaching was what has commonly become known as the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.”  This forms the very basis for the development of cooperative living.  The Code of Hammurabi, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, is closely related to the Golden Rule – but stated in the negative.  If you do wrong to someone, then equal wrong should be done to you.  

As the size of human groups grew, especially with development of agricultural communities, the role of the Gods also needed to grow.  Larger groups of people occupying larger land areas require more intricate forms of organization and leadership.  Larger groups require greater sophistication of structure.  This includes a system of justice and some form of hierarchy to lead the group, as well as provision for meeting the economic needs of the hierarchy and the costs of managing the group.  Taxation of some sort has likely been with us since the earliest days of agriculture - or even earlier.  The role of God and religion expanded to meet the larger organizational needs of the larger human groups.

Religion has historically played the major role in managing groups of people.  The primary practical and observable group function of religion has been to provide the shared ethics, morality, justice and rule by which members of the community interact. 

Religion, group management, and group leadership have been intertwined throughout human history.  This is a very efficient system.  Religion provides answers about life and death to satisfy fundamental questions of each individual (ego); and religion also serves as the set of ethics, principals, and even operating procedures that guide the society.  The leader of the society has often also been the leader of the religion. 

Religions are much, much more than belief in a god.  Throughout human history religions have met 2 basic human needs:

• Religions have provided answers about the meaning of life and death
• Religions have provided social, economic, and political rules that manage, guide and lead groups of people.

In our current advanced civilization, science has become our tool for investigating the world around us and explaining the unknown.  No wonder there is a continual friction between religion and science; in some respects they have the same objective.

"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as convenient." Seneca the Younger, Roman philosopher, (3 B.C.-65 A.D.)