Re: virus: Origin of religion theory
Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 21:58:04 -0400
David McFadzean wrote:
>
> Some of you may have been around here long enough to read
> my theory on the origin of religion. Basically it goes something
> like this: Humans have evolved a natural (not learned) ability
> to recognize faces; it is highly sophisticated, robust and
> hard-wired into our brains. However, due to the nature of the
> problem, it isn't possible to avoid getting a few false positives,
> hence humans tend to see faces in natural formations such as
> tree trunks, rocks and babbling brooks. Our ancient (million
> years ago) ancestors accounted for this phenomenon by attributing
> spirits to the natural words: forest dryads, rock trolls, and
> water sprites. This belief complex, animism, is the memetic
> ancestor of all our modern (superstition-based) religions.
>
> The reason I bring this up again is that I just noticed that
> someone else has arrived at the same theory independently and
> published a book on it called "Faces in the Clouds : A New Theory
> of Religion".
>
"If triangles knew God, he would have three sides."
-Montesquieu