Quote:
Originally Posted by SamIam
It seems as though history always describes a faith of some sort in ancient and not so ancient peoples. Anthropoligists often make the same observations of the peoples they study. So is faith somehow on one of our genes?
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Its extremely difficult to differentiate between genetic and environmental (learned) behavior but I learned something recently that really changed how I view this question.
Most of us find "truth" through the scientific method where truth is supported by evidence. An 8 year old with solid evidence will be have more validity than an 80 year old with no evidence. I recently learned that this mindset is in fact quite recent and most of past human civilization has viewed "truth" differently.
One mindset which is still part of our society is truth from authority. An authority figure (king, priest, The Bible) dictates what is true or not.
Another, and more interesting IMO, is a "truth" that is not necessary supported by concrete evidence, but from what the mainstream dictates is true. For example, if I tell someone something and then that person passes away, then I tell everyone else that I said something different, the latter becomes a "truth". So, getting back to faith, if everyone believes that we have a supernatural being watching over us, it really doesn't matter what is actually true (yes I am biased), since either way cannot be proven, then that supernatural being becomes "truth". In a basic civilization or hunter gatherer society, different mindsets on what "truth" is probably were more efficient and adaptable with the type of society. I can't image a hunter gatherer society really being successful with the entire group dedicated to the scientific method.
So, a possible theory is that it may not be a "faith gene" but, along with other reasons mentioned in this thread, that historically humans have viewed the world with a different mindset on what truth is, allowing supernatural beings to be much more accepted. Or, this "faith gene" tends to naturally form a mindset where faith is determined as truth and we have recently overcame this "faith gene" with strong social conditioning.
Also, I do not view this mindset as black and ours as white. I see them as different shades of gray where recently the majority has shifted from a lighter shade to a darker.