RE: The "God" Part of the Brain, by Matthew Alper
February 9, 2024 at 4:26 pm
(This post was last modified: February 9, 2024 at 4:27 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(January 5, 2024 at 1:34 pm)neil Wrote: "The 'God' Part of the Brain" by Matthew Alper - I found any mention of this book only once on this forum, on a thread that's more than 10 years old.
Is anyone here familiar with this book? Although I haven't read it, I have heard the author interviewed about it, so I have an overview or superficial idea of what it's about.
In an interview with the author, they're discussing the gene or series of genes involved in producing a belief in deities, an afterlife, etc., and he's asked, "how did it get there - who put it there?" The way he responds to this is rather vague, and essentially, he simply doesn't know.
There is another book - one that I have read ("Rule by Secrecy" by Jim Marrs), that inspired me to come up with a possible explanation that would answer that question (of who put it there or how it got there); essentially, it's the portion of the book that discusses Hasan's method of recruiting people to make them assassins.
A series of genes involved in producing a belief in deities or afterlife is conceptually no different from a series of genes that makes a person more susceptible to schizophrenia, early onset dementia, psychopathy, as well as other predilection which are deemed to be not all together a credit to the person carrying them.
