“Attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts.” – Roger Trigg, Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, Oxford University
After three years, the massive “Cognition, Religion and Theology Project” has come to an end. Led by Justin Barrett from the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at Oxford University and Roger Trigg from the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, also at Oxford, the 1.9 million-British-pound project involved 57 researchers, 40 separate studies and 20 countries, covering societies that are both predominantly religious and predominantly atheist.
The researchers explained that the project was not about proving or disproving the existence of god, but to explore the evolutionary and cognitive basis for religious thinking. They state in their FAQ, “We are just as interested in identifying the cognitive and ecological factors that contribute to the spread of atheism as we are in the factors contributing to the pervasiveness and persistence of beliefs in God or gods.”
They found that humans have a natural tendency to believe in gods, the supernatural and an afterlife, and this begins at an early age. They also found that religion is less important in urban areas in developed nations, where non-religious social support systems are present. Conversely, in undeveloped and developing nations, religion represents an important way for people to cooperate and find support.
“This project suggests that religion is not just something for a peculiar few to do on Sundays instead of playing golf,” said Professor Trigg. “We have gathered a body of evidence that suggests that religion is a common fact of human nature across different societies. This suggests that attempts to suppress religion are likely to be short-lived as human thought seems to be rooted to religious concepts, such as the existence of supernatural agents or gods, and the possibility of an afterlife or pre-life.”
But believing in supernatural powers is one thing. Proving them is another. And trying to apply reason to religion always ruffles more than a few feathers. “The whole point of religious faith, its strength and chief glory, is that it does not depend on rational justification,” wrote British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his New Statesman defense of Salman Rushdie after the Ayatollah Khomeini urged Muslims to kill the author for writing The Satanic Verses. “The rest of us are expected to defend our prejudices. But ask a religious person to justify their faith and you infringe ‘religious liberty.’”
Perhaps the difficulty in suppressing religion is not, as Professor Trigg asserts, because human thought is rooted in religious concepts, but because religious concepts don’t need to be rooted in reason.
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[Last month on 13.7 Billion Years , “Deep Space” looked into the expanse of the universe beyond the limits of our solar system. Such investigations often end with the types of questions that puzzle not only scientists, but also philosophers and religious and spiritual thinkers. How did we get here? How did it all begin? And what was here before the beginning? For the month of August, the series “Physicists & Priests” considers the complex and often contentious relationship between science and religion.]