Did Evolution of Human Imagination 50,000 Years Ago Trigger Belief in God?

www.dailygalaxy.com...

French-British anthropologist, Maurice Bloch, of the London School of Economics believes that humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination. Now I don’t believe this is why. Maybe it is maybe it isn’t. But I definitely don’t believe that evolution made humans get imagination. Animals can dream to.

The correct explanation is simple, but few will accept it because they know nothing about the answer and are too caught up in working, buying and watching--concensus reality--to care much anyway.

The concept of God is the result of the capability of humans to deeply meditate and reach the state of nirvana which few non-meditators will comprehend The concept of God is an attempt to explain this plain and simple feature of existence in more or less human terms.

Unfortunately, Western religions have taken the concept of God and have ran with it, building tremendously complex and wealthy empires based on the being of a virtually human-like intelligence for this wonderful state.

Most Eastern religions--a Hell of a lot more people than there are Christians if you want to count numbers, accept the state of nirvana for what it clearly is. But there need not be any type of religion tailored to flesh it out except for those that would use it for power and control--which is about all organized religions.

Nivana has many other names, by the way. Anyone can attain it without a bunch of formal religious baggage being carried along.

Transcendental Meditation (TM) is one of the best ways for Westerners to attain nirvana without a lot of ceremony and without holding any person or deity as lord and master. Or you can sit down comfortable yourself right now and start learning. It doesn't even take a special music, book, or video or especially even yoga. You can fashion your own concepts of how and why nirvana can be attained. You find a personal God there, if you want to make a religion out of it, but that would be your doing and wouldn't cost you a cent but for a couple of 20 minutes sessions a day. A small price to pay for what you get.

I learned TM for about a 20 dollar donation back in 1973. (It is far more expensive today!) I have not practiced it for decades, but I hold what I found through it as someting very special, a philosophy of life.

OK, Now flame the heck outta me! (But. Hey! I was just giving the thread a bit of a nudge!)

Care to explain this TM, meditation how to do it?

reply to post by Maddogkull


Being able to deal with abstractions , analogies, metaphors .... etc , certainly `opened up` the possibilities for our species .

I can see why communal religious beliefs would have benefited `the group` , adding another layer of social complexity .
It certainly had a cohesive element to it (well it did if you happened to agree with it .. :lol

Re: Religious belief and imagination.

Early proto-religions & belief systems were surely influenced by psychoactive substances .Without having some understanding of the neuro-chemistry involved , that talking tree or visit by a dead relatively would be mighty compelling `proof` of otherworldliness .
For T&C reasons ,i`ll leave it at that.

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This is from a very interesting BBC series called "Walking with Cavemen"

It discusses how environmental pressures leading to a near extinction ,played a part in the evolution of our species.




Edit to add: Video



[edit on 11-10-2009 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 11-10-2009 by UmbraSumus]

[edit on 11-10-2009 by UmbraSumus]

reply to post by Maddogkull


It was the Beatles that basically brought it to the West. The master of TM, the Maharishi Mahest Yogi, some call him a spiritual leader, died within the last year. He was decidedly human as are all leaders. Some hold him as holy, but I never have. He was a great teacher, to be sure, and a clever marketer of his product. There was a demand for his product and talent and he prospered from it. Nothing wrong with that. Churches do it all of the time.

Google will give you a few million hits, I suppose, on TM. TM was my way to find nirvana, there are many, many other ways and today the internet makes it easy to start and do meditation for free.

The search for Cosmic Consciousness available via TM can be as cheap or expensive as you want, and brother, they have some expensive programs today! Make no mistake, I have no great love for the organization that it has become today. My personal opinion is that they have taken a simple mental process and made it virtually into a religion. But as with all religions, most adherents go willingly through the doors with open wallets.

What is the Transcendental Meditation® technique?
The Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple, natural, effortless process practiced 15–20 minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably with eyes closed. It is unique among techniques of meditation, distinguished by its effortlessness, naturalness and profound effectiveness.
www.tm.org...


Maddogkull hope this helps, another method of many.

If you have read Matthew Alpers book 'The God Part of the Brain' it may answer some questions, he believes we have been pre-programed to worhip something. Isolated tribes who have never seen other humans worship something as simple as a rock..

[edit on 11-10-2009 by Aquarius1]

I would suggest looking at the most primitive peoples of the earth today: the hunter-gatherers who are left.

Humans have been the same, as in modern humans have been around, for about 250,000 years (+/-). This means that the anthropologist doesn't know what they're talking about when they mention 50,000 years. For example, the oldest art found is maybe 70,000 years old, but I'm sure it's older than that, we just haven't found anything older.

There are certain things that are instinctual. Swimming is an instinct. Control of fire is an instinct. Art is an instinct. These things are unique to humans (Well, with swimming, no other primates can swim, so it's unique also in that sense.).

Anyway, back to the hunter-gatherers. They ALL have a language. They ALL have religion. They've been living the same way for 250,000 (+/-) years. In a way, religion is an instinct, and is definitely older than 50,000 years old.

And yes, I do claim to know better than Maurice Bloch.

reply to post by UmbraSumus


Thank you for the link UmbraSimus, very interesting and thank you for the other link.