Why do we believe in a higher power?

For my summer reading assignment, I have to read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.  As I was reading, one line caught me a little bit by surprise: “God is a cluster of neurons.” I thought that was interesting, and it got me wondering why people believe in God or a higher power. 

As I was researching, I came across the field of neurotheology, which is described as the intersection between neuroscience and

theology. I didn’t want to look at belief in God from a theological perspective at all, and instead wanted to look at it from a purely neuroscientific and biological perspective.

Neurotheology presents the idea that religious and spiritual belief is housed in the limbic system of the brain, an area primarily associated with emotion. Neurotheologists, however, were unable to quantify and prove the existence of these “God neurotransmitters” and “God neurons.”

Dean Hamer, a behavioral geneticist argues that spirituality is a natural phenomenon that can be quantified and measured genetically, but religion is a value passed down non-genetically, and instead through repetition and “nurture.” Another scientist, George Uhl, who studied genetic vulnerability to drugs of abuse, found that a mutation for a chemical-packaging protein on chromosome ten could lead to feelings of self-transcendence and spirituality. People with the mutation experienced significantly higher self-transcendence, or feeling beyond the “self” and at one with the universe. While the mutation did cause an increase in self-transcendence, one single genetic mutation cannot be the root cause of spirituality. Hamer and other scientists argue that spirituality is primarily caused by nurture reasons rather than simple human nature. 

Also, people vary. We all have different fingerprints that are caused more by our movement in the womb than genetics. I have prescription glasses, but my brother has 20/20 vision. Not everything is going to be mapped out for us by our genes. I was not raised religiously, but I have friends that were, and its because of the way we were raised that has led to our belief, or lack thereof, in God or a higher power. 

People may be hardwired for spirituality but not religion. Even in Oryx and Crake, the Children of Crake, who have been genetically engineered to not believe in God, have found a sort of reverence, a sort of spirituality. Rather than believe in God, they revere Crake. I think people find comfort in feeling like someone is out there looking out of us. That everything is part of a plan and that everything happens for a reason. This post isn’t particularly curated to high school students, but I was curious. And I think it’s important to follow curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. 

References: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/neurotheology-are-we-hardwired-god