God & Religion: Evolutionary Opiates

Religion may be a evolutionary opiate.There is a theory (hypothesis) that the tendency to have magical beliefs may be an evolutionary niche that played a role in our evolutionary survival. Magical thinking gives people hope in an otherwise apathetic cruel world. It may have helped early human endure and cope with harsh survival hardships and statistically cruel adversities. What believers really seek to find through religion is a sense security, order, purpose. It is the hope that there is an answer to the “why” of their existence (sometimes a miserable one). They want to feel special enough for a deity to concern him/herself with their obviously insignificant lives; Insignificant from the overwhelmingly large perspective of the universe. A person’s life may affect other people, his immediate environment, in very rare occasions mankind and our planet. But outside this picoscopic blue oasis the significance of their lives is nonexistent. The universe carries on unaware of our existence.

The believer’s desire is understandable, even skeptics wonder about these things. Shit! On some level we all seek some kind of validation to our existence. Subconsciously, I delude myself with the idea that I am special. However, I’m just another very curious self-aware human; One of many of our species; not exactly the same as the rest, but not very different. These false ideas help me emotionally tussle with failure, adverse circumstances. I delude myself with the prospect of an incredibly bright successful future to motivate myself, knowing full well many of my fantasies will not come true. I could fall ill and die. I could fall victim to some life altering event. A jagged frozen blue turd can fall off and airplane and land on my throat or I could just fail miserably. There is no destiny, no guarantees. The universe has no bias towards or against me. The only guarantee is that someday I will die.

It is normal for individuals to feel like they are destined to someday enjoy glory, wealth, happiness, success, peace, pleasure, a sense of fulfillment etc. These are delusions in contrast to statistical reality. Most people don’t become wealthy, glorious, and successful. Many die young, poor, under miserable conditions; work their entire lives earning meager livings with little satisfaction. Most don’t become what they dreamed they would grow up to be. Many achieve their goals, but the satisfaction is short lived or not as pleasurable as envisioned. Many, who were on the road to glory and success, living dream lives, die before their prime. But if we were to be so blatantly honest, realistic and pessimistic with ourselves I suppose we would all be overdosing on Percocet and Valium. There is plenty to be depressed about. A little Intentional self deception helps us deal with what would otherwise be overwhelming.

A very common example of this conjuration we play with ourselves occurs when a loved one passes away. To try and cope people sometimes say things like “He gone to a better place now”, “we will see her again when Jesus comes”, “I know I’ll see him in heaven” or “She is in heaven smiling down on us”. Yet our emotions defraud us and contradict our statements. We cry and grieve like we will never see them again. Deep down we are well aware death is an end and the likelihood of ever enjoying that person’s company again is nil. This is the reason why many religions, if not all, concern themselves with an afterlife. They help believers cope with the prospect of their own mortality.

So I wonder if religion is an expression of a somewhat necessary “brain generated delusion” that evolution has provided the human species. None the less, this particular expression of an otherwise useful evolutionary niche, is past its prime in many ways, and is retarding humanities progress.

A Very Brief Rebuttal of Socialism and Gun Prohibition

I wrote the following as a response to a fellow My-Spacer’s blog on why he is a Democratic Socialist and against guns. I added and edited little bit from the original.

I wish you allowed for comments, oppressing free speech already? lol. First off, the idea of socialism is not a natural one. Nature’s law is survival of the fittest. Natural selection provided the method by which humans evolved as a species to what we are now. Life was never meant to be fair. Why do humans seek equilibrium when nothing about our universe is static? Our earth is not a static environment; it is in constant motion and perpetually changing. We live in a dynamic universe. Socialism strives to make everyone equal. We are not all equal, species are not all equal, and the forces that drive our universe are not all equal. Some of us are smarter than others, some of us are stronger than others, some faster, some shorter, taller, fatter, agile, astute. To pretend everyone is in the same class is ridiculous. We are not all in the same class. I believe in the fair treatment of people, but fair does always mean equal treatment.

Like different species of animals who have found their evolutionary survival niche, so have the rich. They have chosen to use their wits versus a workers brawn. People make the rich as fat and lazy snobs. Well most that I have encountered are not fat, and lazy they are not. To stay on top you can’t be stagnant, you have to be progressive. The working class hates on the rich because they envy them. They wish they didn’t have to toil in the soil and sweat unlike the rich. They wish they enjoyed the same prosperity. Since they don’t, socialism, like crabs in a can when one reaches the lip of the can another yanks it down, is an attempt to strip the wealthy from their harvest, as to relieve themselves from the sense of inadequacy by artificially making everyone equally adequate. This is something to the likes of killing your opponent if you can’t compete with him.

While I don’t believe we are in the same class, I do believe everyone should have similar opportunities. This is what makes the United States so appealing to the rest of the world, there are endless opportunities. Virtually anyone here can get a higher education. But do we all? Usually the poor lack education not because they can’t but because they choose not to. It is a lot easier for most after high school (if they finish that); to get nine to five jobs rather than to work hard at a higher education related career or founding businesses. If there is no job available to them, then criminal hustles like drug dealing, prostitution, and theft is what they resort to. Some say they have no choice, but life itself is full of choices. Everyone makes choices and is accountable to themselves for the choices made.

Money is not what separates the wealthy from the impoverished, it is education and knowledge. I think what can narrow the gap between the rich and the poor is education. Socialism to me seems to be an artificial way of fixing the problem. It treats the symptom (money), versus the addressing the cause (education and opportunity). A pretty reliable stat is the uneducated have plenty more children than the educated. Children being the major priority in most parents’ lives, the opportunities to escape poverty diminish with an every child.

And frankly, some people have a lot more drive and will than others when it comes to success. The truth is these ambitious people are the movers and shakers of society. Without competition no one would have the need to do things better. This allows for a dynamic progressive society. Like animals compete in the wild, humans also compete with each other, resulting in the fittest design surviving. Likewise, competition in a society bring out the best, not just business wise, but in ourselves. Adversity separates the weak and the obsolete from the best suited for a task (life). As humans we have a need to feel good about ourselves. We feel good when we achieve. We feel good when we are the best or at least talented. Nothing refines talent like competition. It is a natural pressure that pushes us to excel like hunger.

So before we blame and chastise the rich, blaming others for our problems, let’s self-reflect on what we can do better. For one instill the importance of an education in our working class children and secondly be more active in politics and government. Societies only change if the people that constitute them want to and care to make a change.

About guns, criminals in jail don’t have guns, yet they find very creative ways to end life or injure. Before guns people still murdered each other just the same. But that’s not my point. There is a reason why our founding fathers placed that clause in our social contract. It is a “just in case” clause; just in case government becomes oppressive (which by the way its on its way to being). Guns are a means by which the people can rebel and protect themselves from oppression. Many misuse freedoms, the 911 hijackers misused many of our liberties. Do we now strip everyone from these freedoms and rights for safety reasons, like the patriot act blatantly does? As Americans we stand for liberties and rights, this is who we are, our very identity. We are a free society (supposed to be at least). Would you choose an oppressed and safe life over a free life? Life is full of dangers; we don’t live in kindergarten class where everything is child proof. Life by its very nature is dangerous and unfair, period. Survival of the fittest is the only rule that applies.

If poverty is the problem, then let’s fix poverty. If un-education is a factor of poverty, let work on that. Treating the symptoms never cures the illness.