RE: Is religion a virus?
September 4, 2023 at 5:12 am
(This post was last modified: September 4, 2023 at 5:41 am by Anomalocaris.)
(September 4, 2023 at 4:28 am)FrustratedFool Wrote:(September 4, 2023 at 4:26 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: real viruses often has the wherewithal to jump species. I am afraid religion is so pathetic it is incapable of jumping species but will live and die with only that the most gullible of all species.
I wonder. I suspect some other hominids had rudimentary religious impulses (esp Neanderthals). I have no idea about the inner life of dolphins, chimps, pigs, crows and octopi etc. But more so I wonder about ETs and AIs ...
Imagine a religious AI? Could be interesting.
Religion requires a very particular set of cognitive defects such as:
1. deriving more comfort from having any explanation than from having persistently verifiable and predictive explanations, or a parallel in having more delight in seemingly being able to cheat from a cheat sheet of dubious origin rather than accepting only answers which have been proven to be right or adequately predictive under the circumstances.
2. Having a fear of one’s own nonexistence greater than any satisfaction in having done the right thing for one’s community, species, and progeny
It is not clear whether such cognitive defects are common to all intelligences, all biological intelligence, only intelligences which shared a great part of the particular evolution history with us, or only intelligence which were influenced by how civilization evolved under the particular circumstances in which our societies evolved.
