Does anyone know if there have been any experiements done regarding the development of religion in the human brain? For example, if a group of people were isolated from any sort of religious influence, are they likely to develop their own version of God and such?
I have a hard time believing that the need for a God is a biological trait brought by through the process of evolution. It seems so much more likely to me that religion is merely a consequence of having developed an inquisitive mind. Just about every human being has a strong desire to know where we came from, why we are here and where we are going. If think religion has been developed and, more importantly, passed down through generations much the same as, for example, education. We are not born with either the desire or the ability to factorise quadratic equations, yet a very large number of people (at least in the Western world) are now able to do this.
Is this a sign of the evolutionary process, or a consequence of us having developed a consciousness and a longing to understand our world? To me, it seems obviously the latter.
For those who have a subscription to New Scientist, they recently published an article dealing with this very subject. Unfortunately I don't subscribe, but here is a link for those of you who do (or want to).
http://www.newscientist.com/...el/being-human/mg18925361.100
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