Religion a Function of Human Biology?
Published by Haseeb January 24th, 2006 in Science/MedicineQuestions for Daniel C. Dennett - Interview by Deborah Solomon - New York Times
How could you, as a longtime professor of philosophy at Tufts University, write a book that promotes the idea that religious devotion is a function of biology? Why would you hold a scientist’s microscope to something as intangible as belief?
I don’t know about you, but I find St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s pretty physical.
But your new book, “Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon,” is not about cathedrals. It’s about religious belief, which cannot be dissected in a lab as if it were a disease.
That itself is a scientific claim, and I think it is false. Belief can be explained in much the way that cancer can. I think the time has come to shed our taboo that says, “Oh, let’s just tiptoe by this, we don’t have to study this.” People think they know a lot about religion. But they don’t know.
…I take it you do not subscribe to the idea of an everlasting soul, which is part of almost every religion.
Ugh. I certainly don’t believe in the soul as an enduring entity.Our brains are made of neurons, and nothing else. Nerve cells are very complicated mechanical systems. You take enough of those, and you put them together, and you get a soul.
That strikes me as a very reductive and uninteresting approach to religious feeling.
Love can be studied scientifically, too.
Why do people insist on justifying their religious beliefs through science? As if science were the be all end all…
Amir says that Science is from Allah
, tee hee
Sigh. Haseeb man, why do you keep putting this stuff up? We this kind of thought is inevitable given the current trend. Haseeb puts up this stuff and then if I read it he knows it’s going to get me writing, and it’s not like I say anything new Haseeb so why do you keep on putting me through this- you think I don’t work as hard as you do over there at med school? PUH-LEASE.
Ok here it goes:
Two points here: one, this guy is a materialist. He believes that only physical objects exist, and thus all his explanations for the world must be contained within this assumption. It is exactly that - an assumption. To be a materialist is to make a choice to have faith in the fact that only physical objects exist and that the world is simply an interplay of these physical objects. It is similar to faith, in that there can never be any empirical evidence for this point. No one can prove using scientific means or otherwise that the material is all that exists. It is the *fundamental human choice* to decide to believe in the “unseen” or not. That’s why I believe this point was placed right in the beginning of the Qur’an - that the Book will benefit only those who, among other things, believe in the Unseen! Those who do not take that first, non-empirical-based step, will search for explanations to the world only through physical objects and their interactions. Thus, when this guy says our “soul” is a bunch of neurons, he’s making a faith-based claim, not a scientific one.
Second point: that being said, should it surprise us, however, that the human being should be hard-wired to search for meaning, to search for truth? Not at all, since it’s part of our fitrah to do so, and as human beings we must remember that although our essence is spiritual, that spiritual element resides within a physical body, and thus there is an intimate relationship between the two. The spiritual affects the physical and the physical affects the spiritual - science can’t study the relationship between the two because it’s focus is only on the physical.
Remember, materialists will always search for why something is the way it is through *their world view based on their own assumptions* - so of course they’ll try to study religion and they’ll reduce it to something silly like, “it helped the hairy cave man get food and have sex, and so he invented religion” - which is, by the way, what everything in modern biology ultimately reduces itself to (not to say there isn’t truth to aspects of evolution, as I believe that there are, but just take a look at what modern biology reduces us all to: “life exists to propogate the DNA molecule. We do everything so we can have sex”… subhanAllah, look how shaytan has pulled a COMPLETE reversal to what we are supposed to be as human beings!
Anyway - Haseeb, now please leave me alone.
Saleem
this has got to be by far the worse post this month. man stick to the sufi-salafi stuff. its hot stuff, hahaha.
Actually I like these kind of posts. Keep it up Haseeb!
MR, do you have any cool bandanas with la ilaha illa Allah
written on them that you can send me?
great article!! for people like this guy and for anyone else on this website or who posts replies i recommend the book “An Introduction to Islam” by shiekh Ali Tantawi. Its a great book that some say is kind of philosophical Islam but it can help ppl who think that everything that exists must be physical and tangible to open their minds to new ways of looking at things. Mujahada based on your comment I think that you would like this book, you should really read it:) Keep up the good work haseeb.. you got me into thinking i should start my own blog by the way. jazaku Allah
khier!
Sorry Amir, this isnt mujahideenryder.com, its hahmed.com - I am not here to cater to whats ‘popular’, there are hundreds of thousands of blogs out there on the web, but mine is unique, because I write about whatever I find interesting. And this issue of science/medicine and religion is a profound interest of mine. (and saleem too!)
If you look at the crystal structure of pyruvate dehydrogenase it says “Allah
” in Arabic
ws
to “Lujain”
first of all, you’re from Europe,
second of all, lying is haram
third of all, ‘tee hee’ is a teeny bopper thing, thus u may be a lil boy/girl
fourth of all, identify your self!
FYI: sorry guys, i wrote a reply and recommended a book. i amde a mistake about the title of the book. it’s called “A General Introduction to Islam ” not “An Introduction to Islam”
HAHAHAHA! Oh man Ahmed, that was awesome. Yes I believe in those miracles here and there but sometimes those get a little too crazy.
“Akhi! If you look at the sun from this angle then eventually it looks like Ayat-al-Kursi!”
“Um, no - you’ll just burn your retinas…”
“No Akhi! I’m telling you!”
Khayr, props to people for trying to come up with any excuse to remember Allah
- that’s always a good thing. And yeah, all these beautiful signs in nature are there for us to know Allah 
thru…
Salams to all - and Mali, thanks and jazakumullahu khayran for the book, I’ll be sure to look it up.
Salams
PS - oh SNAP - he told you off MR.
Allah