(February 3, 2014 at 6:39 am)Tonus Wrote: I think that the human brain seeks out patterns and tries to make meaning of everything around it. It's probably a survival skill or a social skill, but it means that we don't like randomness and we don't like disorder. We want everything to have a reason and a simple explanation that we can follow and understand. I think that our brains impose a level of order and forethought to the universe and to the things around us that are not always there.
That is very true, in my opinion. The human brain seeks out and finds patterns quite naturally, even in places where none exist. And it's amazingly good at it.
Here's a relevant passage I came across in a book review of Michael Shermer's "The Believing Brain." (Emphasis mine).
Quote:Shermer proposes that our brains are "belief engines" that "look for and find patterns" quite naturally, and it is only following this that our brains assign these patterns with meaning. It is these meaningful patterns that form what Shermer terms “belief-dependent reality.” Additionally, our brains tend to gravitate towards information that further reinforces our beliefs, and ignore data that contradicts these beliefs. This becomes a self-reinforcing loop where beliefs drive explanation seeking behaviors to confirm those beliefs which are further reinforced, and drive further confirmation seeking behavior. In fact, the human brain is so adept at looking for patterns it "sees" them in places where none exist. Shermer calls this "illusory correlation". Birds do it, rats to it; humans are masters at it. B.F. Skinner’s groundbreaking experiments on partial reinforcement in animals shows this "patternicity" exquisitely.
However, I don't agree with Shermer's opinion that this pattern-seeking behavior even where none exist is by itself completely an "ilusory correlation." On the contrary, I think that it is very real because it is something which is self-ingrained in us; it's what we do without even thinking about it.
And I believe that there is an underlying inclination in us that causes our brains to seek out patterns: this is an innate inclination for seeking an "ultimate unity."
In Islam, the idea above is embodied by a concept called "fitrah."
Fitrah is commonly understood as a type of innate, spiritual quality that inclines every human being towards the belief in the existence of an ungraspable Oneness ("tawheed"). There are also some slightly different but complementary meanings of this term. For example: Fitrah is the primordial state of belief in God; it refers to an innate knowledge of the oneness of God; it is an ingrained God-consciousness; it is an internal compass that is implanted deep in our souls and it can either flourish or get corrupted. And, as wikipedia puts it:
Quote:According to Islamic theology, human beings are born with an innate inclination of tawhid (Oneness), which is encapsulated in the fitra along with compassion, intelligence, ihsan and all other attributes that embody what it is to be human.
"Fitrah" has a deep-rooted connection with the concept of "tawheed" which is really the core of Islam; these two concepts are linked. "Tawheed" linguistically comes from the word "wahhada" which means "to make one," "to make whole," or "to unify." The word "tawheed" extends to incorporate more practical applications as well (in a technical/Islamic understanding of the word), but, fundamentally, it means "to make one." See the definition below:
Quote:Literally TAWHEED means: "To make something one, or to assert the oneness of something, or to call it one", and it comes from the Arabic verb وحد (wahhada) which means to unite, unify or consolidate. However what we are concerned about here is the technical or Islamic meaning of Tawheed which is: "To single out Allah Almighty alone for worship, love, and submissiveness to Him by complying to His commands and submitting to them"
http://www.subulussalaam.org/2013/02/Wha...vCUcfvv7O8
* * * * * * * * * *
My point is, believing in the existence of a "unity" or a "oneness" behind all the worldly phenomena is a pattern-seeking behavior that we all possess; that is the ultimate pattern-seeking behavior that characterizes each and every one of us. And I believe that is what constitutes the base of our "fitrah" (or our "innate inclination") as I explained above.
Every human being possesses within themselves a latent desire for seeking an unknown unity because they, deep in their hearts, somehow "know" that it exists. We naturally find pleasure and happiness when we contemplate on the unity behind the multiplicity, or the oneness behind the manyness. Our hearts and minds naturally likes to make everything in reality into One (tawheed). And such an inclination (or "fitrah" in Arabic) exists inside everyone - whether they are atheists or not. Some people may deny that they have such an inclination, but it exists. It is hardwired deep in their psyches, but they just suppress it from their awareness.
So, an ingrained knowledge that there is a unity (or oneness) behind everything - that is what I think primarily drives our brains to seek out patterns. Our search for patterns is a sign that we have an inner knowing that everything we see is interconnected, that they are united, at a fundamental level of reality. I don't think that's just an "illusory correlation," as Shermer might say.
And the more amount of order we discover in the cosmos, the more satisfaction we feel because we get reminded that there is a fundamental unity behind everything, even though it exists on a scale beyond our comprehension.
