religion and conspiracy

religion and conspiracy

 

 it seems that religion and conspiracy theory's affect the brain in similar ways. religious thought  occupies the temporal lobe, where as rational thought occupies the frontal lobes. the same discord can be seen in religious and nonreligious thought.

it seems that both religious and conspiratorial thought  is handled by the regions of the brain that handles emotional process,AKA the temporal lobe.

It would also seem that rational thought as well as disbelief in religion occupies the frontal lobe.

why is this? several studies have been done, one by SAM Harris showing some interesting results.

it would seem that the persistence of conspiracy theory's,and religion are due to the same brain process.a joining of agent detection and empathy.in early man being able to see an influence behind unseen action was an evolutionary advantage,it was better to see a threat where there was none than to not see a threat where there was.if you perceived a threat and there was none you would live to see another day,but if you failed to see a threat and there was one you would likely be eaten.so seeing threats in every unexplained action was a life saver at one time.

as the ability to feel empathy developed we began to imbue the unseen agent with a persona,and that began our affair with gods,a curious affliction that has been the baine of modern life.

since the advent of technology our life has sped up in such a way that our brain development could not keep up.as we technologically lost the need for god ,our brain could not escape the millions of years of conditioning and sought to fill the gaps with conspiracies.

every large event in modern times has had its conspiracy theory,from Pearl harbor to the resent BP oil spill,it would seem that you cant turn around to day without running in to a conspiracy.

some say it is a way to comfort ones self,this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.i find that the conspiracy theories are very much the opposite of comforting,maybe it is the feeling of knowing some thing that you think that only a select few know that some find comforting.i don't know.

its when you confront a believer of religion/conspiracy with the facts that refute their beliefs that you find that they will hang on to their beliefs,and even get upset that you don't share there beliefs. this is where we need to try to reconcile the two strangely similar thought process.where as religion has as  its unseen agent GOD, conspiracy has the amorphous "THEM"the name changes depending on who you are talking to,but it is always the same "kind"of entity.all powerful,and all knowing,kind of like god.the main difference is that the evil entity for the conspiracy is the same as their "THEM" where as religion usually has a separate entity.