-----Original Message----- From: Jim Guinee [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 1:50 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Re: Deities "R" Us
>Then of course there are the so-called 330 million gods in Hinduism which are supposedly not separate entities but one actual god >Whew, and I thought the Christian trinity was mind-boggling! In Orthodox christianity there is a joke about the dying man being visited by the priest, which goes something like ... the priest asks "Do you believe in God the father, God the son, and God as Holy spirit?" The patient sits up and says "What??? I'm dying and you give me puzzles?!?". Btw, a classic answer to the multiple-diety issue - in Orthodoxy at least - is that the trinity is not a statement about "God" (that would be arrogant) but a description of how humans _experience_ religion. Big difference. Jim, thanks for your thoughtful comments, you have inspired me. Being Russian Orthodox and an unqualified convert to evolutionary psychology should raise conflicts, but, the fact that I experience so few conflicts causes me to ponder this issue. Maybe this is like the circular universe - you move so far in one direction you end up facing the opposite way. Evolutionary psychology has interesting features. One is that it looks at human behavior as it IS rather than what OUGHT to be. This makes it ok for David Buss to say about murder: "killing has been a marvelously effective solution to an astonishing array of human social conflicts" (last chapter of 'The Murderer Next Door'). The evolutionary perspective does a marvelous job treating murder as a basic human behavior that exists in our brain circuits because those who possessed these circuits were more likely to dominate, gain resources, and spread their genes. I hope, in the coming years, there is more study of religion as human behavior, an evolutionary adaptation to solve ancestral problems. This will elevate religion-as-behavior to the same status mating and murder have enjoyed (!) in the evolutionary psych agenda. Our ancestors faced many issues - still relevant - who do I trust? Who is my friend? Can I deceive others? Can I detect deception in others? We naturally form groups, regulate other members of the others, and discriminate in- from out-groups. Religion unifies groups and regulates behavior. But it is not the only institution that does so. Spend a day with ANY adolescent clique - they regulate behavior stricter than any religion. Initiation rites, dissing, rituals, it's all there. I find the "choice" aspect of religion curious. Human behavior evolved to be regulated. Even the trivial behavior of diet and eating. We evolved with a brain circuit to eat when food is available, which means we suffer in an rich individualistic society in which food is avaiable 24/7 and no social regulation. The French, at least, have a long culinary tradition that keeps eating in social sphere, and may explain the 'French paradox' (high fat food, but lower heart disease; portion size/social eating may be key). Without religious guidance or other cultural traditions we fall prey to diets created by capitalists, or, ineffective fad diets. As far as I know, all major religions have dietary traditions as well as fasting guidelines that keep food a social phenomena. Catholic Lent may have devolved into some trivial traditions, but many Russian & other Slavic, Greeks, Middle Eastern, and Ethopian Christians do an aggressive no meat, dairy, backboned/scaled fish diet for all of Lent. Also no alcohol & TV for those who want an extra challenge. Your blood work really does improve without the animal fats. Muslim fasting is strict but is done differently. Murder may be more serious than diet, and easier to see the importance of social regulation. If Buss is correct, we have brain circuits to murder that have triggers, but, we are kept in check by social regulation. As far as the excessive regulation of sex, this may be more of a monastic idea as Jim suggests (but, why should sex escape social regulation?). Though, I have always thought that what religions really regulate is marriage. It's pretty simple falling in love and having sex with as many partners as you wish. What is regulated is the more formal, social aspect - this is why the marriage ceremony is for the family and community, NOT the bride and groom, and the marriage ring originally went on the RIGHT hand (public, visible), but this was before the theory that the heart was directly connected to the heart and marriage was all about love (I have heard several versions of the right-to-left hand switch). I think the really interesting questioin is whether one can be "in the scene" as a participant as well as "outside the scene" as a scientist. I find that understanding (or at least convincing myself that I understand) gender differences in mating and jealousy do not detract from the full pleasure/pain I experience in these matters. BUT, I find it very rare for people to do both in religion. Those who discuss religion as a purely human affair, whether opium-for-the-masses or an evolutionary relic, are not active in religion. If there are, I would like to hear their stories. At the risk of mis-representing other religions, I always thought the very strict intellectual & personal requirements of Catholic and Protstant religions convince some people they are not religious, and this forces people into dichotomous camps. But that is sheer speculation. One of the things I really enjoy about the old christian tradition is the richness of sensation - acapella music, icons with inverted linear perspective, incense and candles, touch (perpetual hugs and kissing); the distinction between intellectual and sensual gets blurred. I suspect there is a lot of "psychology" lurking beneath the surface, but so many people have had bad experiences with religion it is a supreme challenge studying religion as psychology. P.s. I just heard "HEAD ON - APPLY IT TO YOUR FOREHEAD" three times (talk about a trinity!) and am reminded once again that there are very powerful forces trying to regulate my behavior, besides religion. I think they want my money and they really don't care about my head. But that is just an opinion; I have no peer-reviewed references to prove it :) ----------------------------- John W. Kulig Professor of Psychology Director, Psychology Honors Plymouth State University Plymouth NH 03264 ----------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsn.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=engli sh --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
