29 Aug 2013
Religious faith perpetuates man's inhumanity to man.
Two myths keep faith beyond rational criticism;
Sam Harris is the author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason which challenged the idea that religion is such a great force for good that it is immune from the same rational criticism we give other such influential establishments.
The world is Balkanised into competing faiths based on incompatible Iron Aged philosophies (meaning 2,000 year old or 1st Century mentalities), whilst armed with 21st Century destructive power. See also, Part Two, Part Three, etc. A lecture on the problem of belief, especially religious belief, given at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 2005.
Clearly applies to Brahma Kumarism which is fairly unique amongst Hindu cults in that it adopts much of the imminent millenarianism of the Christo-Islamic traditions.
He questions the ethics of raising children into one of these religion and many other taboos, e.g. the differences in religions. Harris earned a PhD degree in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty, see below.
He found that belief, disbelief and uncertainty differentially activated distinct regions of the brain.
Two myths keep faith beyond rational criticism;
- a) the belief that there are good things that people get from religious faith
b) the belief that the terrible things done in the name of religion are not the products of faith but of our impure natures for which more of a) is the best or only remedy.
Sam Harris is the author of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason which challenged the idea that religion is such a great force for good that it is immune from the same rational criticism we give other such influential establishments.
The world is Balkanised into competing faiths based on incompatible Iron Aged philosophies (meaning 2,000 year old or 1st Century mentalities), whilst armed with 21st Century destructive power. See also, Part Two, Part Three, etc. A lecture on the problem of belief, especially religious belief, given at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in 2005.
Clearly applies to Brahma Kumarism which is fairly unique amongst Hindu cults in that it adopts much of the imminent millenarianism of the Christo-Islamic traditions.
He questions the ethics of raising children into one of these religion and many other taboos, e.g. the differences in religions. Harris earned a PhD degree in cognitive neuroscience at the University of California using functional magnetic resonance imaging to conduct research into the neural basis of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty, see below.
He found that belief, disbelief and uncertainty differentially activated distinct regions of the brain.
Functional neuroimaging of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty Harris S, Sheth Silver Age, Cohen MS.
Source: University of California Los Angeles Brain Mapping Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The difference between believing and disbelieving a proposition is one of the most potent regulators of human behavior and emotion. When one accepts a statement as true, it becomes the basis for further thought and action; rejected as false, it remains a string of words. The purpose of this study was to differentiate belief, disbelief, and uncertainty at the level of the brain.
METHODS: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of 14 adults while they judged written statements to be "true" (belief), "false" (disbelief), or "undecidable" (uncertainty). To characterize belief, disbelief, and uncertainty in a content-independent manner, we included statements from a wide range of categories: autobiographical, mathematical, geographical, religious, ethical, semantic, and factual.
RESULTS: The states of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty differentially activated distinct regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortices, as well as the basal ganglia.
INTERPRETATION: Belief and disbelief differ from uncertainty in that both provide information that can subsequently inform behavior and emotion. The mechanism underlying this difference appears to involve the anterior cingulate cortex and the caudate. Although many areas of higher cognition are likely involved in assessing the truth-value of linguistic propositions, the final acceptance of a statement as "true" or its rejection as "false" appears to rely on more primitive, hedonic processing in the medial prefrontal cortex and the anterior insula. Truth may be beauty, and beauty truth, in more than a metaphorical sense, and false propositions may actually disgust us.
