the fossil record
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I was straightening and condensing one oversize pile of magazines and periodicals and happened across an article titled “Darwin’s Rottweiler”. The Rottweiler is calm, intelligent, devoted, and fiercely loyal, but, like the German Shepherd, the Rottweiler needs firm control and guidance or he may become aggressive. It would seem from the article by Stephen S. Hall in the September ’05 issue of Discover magazine, that Sir Richard Dawkins, a.k.a. Darwin’s Rottweiler, has snapped at too many too often.
As I read about Dawkins' aggressive crusade against organized religion, I was reminded of a recent book by Matthew Alper, The God Part of the Brain. Alper hypothesizes that humans have a genetic basis for mystical experience. Others have also found evidence suggestive of brain wiring for spirituality. Alper also posits that the raison d’ętre for such a brain area is the protection that it gives us as we contemplate our own mortality. Over the millennia, many have found that it feels good to turn that part on.
Perhaps further hypotheses might also be pursued. It is recognized that many females of many species prefer the alpha male. As the state of alpha-ness advertises genetic success, it makes sense for females to mix their numerically limited gametes with the finest available. (Don't we all want the best for our children?) Did prophets and men of (one) god (or another) profit from this sexual bias? And once this “true” path was stepped upon were not those who were believers also favored in the reproductive dance?
Social behavior is also genetically influenced. In our early history it was distinctly advantageous for “our kind” to band in unity and fierce defense. Who better to unite than a prophet, a man of god, a king anointed by a higher force? And the children of such a group, such a king, might be favored in the survival game.
It seems to me, a long time agnostic by drift, that attacking churches and religions is equivalent to barking at the stripes on a zebra or growling at the nesting habits of whooping cranes. Better to whisper for understanding, to teach the children of the world to relish differences and to apply firm but gentle control to the loudest barkers, be they scientists or preachers of hell fires.
Anastasia Voight