Mein Gott

“The human brain is . . powered by a ‘belief engine’ that makes us eager to seize on causal explanations for events, irrespective of whether they have any basis in truth. . . .Around half of all Americans believe in astrology, and 72% believe in angels. . . .The Nobel prizewinning physicist Niels Bohr kept a horseshoe nailed to the wall above his desk and, when asked whether he believed it would bring him luck, replied: ‘Not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such nonsense. However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you luck whether you believe in it or not.’ . . . where belief and logic clash, humans will almost always opt for belief, sticking to it obstinately despite adverse evidence. . . . beliefs, it seems, can keep you healthy, whether they are valid or not. . . . Credulity may ensure survival better than logic. . . .religious people are happier, more optimistic, less prone to strokes and high blood pressure, more able to cope with life’s problems and less fearful of death than the irreligious. It follows that belief in the supernatural is an evolutionary advantage, and our ability to have such beliefs must, Wolpert deduces, have been partly determined by our genes. . . . for Wolpert, the wiring is no more divine than our guts or toenails, or any other part of our evolved anatomy. Mystical raptures, similar to those reported by the devout, can be produced, he points out, by mental illness or hallucinogenic drugs and this, too, indicates that religion depends on neural circuits in our brain that accident or malfunction can activate. Some neuroscientists now link spiritual experiences with specific brain areas. Stimulating the brain of subjects with electromagnets causes tiny seizures in the temporal lobes that induce the subjects to believe they have spiritual experiences. The visions of St Teresa, it is suggested, may have been symptoms of temporal-lobe epilepsy. . . .religious beliefs is probably . . an essential part of human nature . . . “
Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: the Evolutionary Origins of Belief By Lewis Wolpert, Our leaps of faith Reviewed by John Carey