Religion in the light of science

2011/05/14 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Giza zientziak

Among these efforts is an international project funded by the European Union, EXREL, which describes religion or Explaining Religion. According to Harvey Whitehouse, the aim is to understand how religious systems are created, how they unfold and what similarities and differences between them. To do this, ten groups of researchers from different disciplines have gathered: biology, psychology, anthropology and the history of religions.

For researchers it is surprising that anywhere in the world there are equal or similar ideas, regardless of their culture. In fact, researchers affirm that religious thoughts and behaviors have universal characteristics, including believing in gods, spirits or ancestors, participating in rites with symbolic meaning, believing that after death there is life or something, believing that the natural phenomenon and personal facts are determined by someone or something above us, and being written or sacred evidence.

According to the researchers, the nucleus of this universality is the architecture of the brain. That is, the sets of beliefs and behaviors we call religion would be rooted in human evolution and would occur as a consequence of the structure of the brain. Hence, EXREL researchers try to explain why religion responds so well to human needs.

From the past to the future

The project is divided into four sections. The first is aimed at identifying the characteristics of common religions. In this way, they seek the same elements that appear in all religions, analyze the variations in function of culture and highlight the ideas that, without being universal, have been repeated throughout history. With all the data collected, the researchers want to go back in time and, from there, reconstruct the evolution of religion throughout history.

The second part looks at the brain with the aim of understanding the origin of universal religious thoughts. Thus, they investigate the cognitive mechanisms that are activated to remember and transmit these thoughts. Among other things, they want to know where the idea arises that after death there is life and why we attribute to someone or something the decision that natural or personal phenomena occur.

Apart from the universal characteristics, in the third section, they focus on variants. In fact, researchers working in this section want to know what and why the common elements that appear in all religions are distinguished.

And if necessary, the most striking is the fourth section. This section aims to invent the future. In particular, they want to know what route and how religious systems will change in the future and for this they are developing computer models.

According to the researchers, if you can develop a good computer model, you can have a practical application in politics. In fact, religion is the reason or excuse for many problems, and researchers believe it would be the right tool to propose measures to prevent them.

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