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- Why did Blaise Pascal become a religious man at the end of his life?
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At the level of individual consciousness ( brain) – neuroscientists Newber and D'Aquili argue that religious experiences are associated with a drop in the activity of the posterior superior parietal lobe, which is responsible for orientation in physical space. It turns out, as a result, the feeling of going beyond personal boundaries and merging with something universal.
Plus the ability and need to frame the external world, to see some meaning and regularity in the surrounding diversity and noise (and as its reverse side – “errors of the second kind”, the detection of meaning where it does not exist). This skill, of course, is not only religious, but also supports magic, science, business, and paranoia.
At the level of collective dynamics – the pressure of the group, which gives a sense of security and inclines to altruistic behavior. Altruism provides an advantage in cross-group selection, so the quality of coercion to it must constantly increase.
At the level of culture, for a person as a being with symbolic activity, religion sets “ultimate meanings”, final justifications for why to live and how to act.
Everything together complements and enhances each other.
1) Simplicity. A person whose interest in the world has been suppressed all his adult life, it is much easier to accept that you need to read only one book in your life, especially if it is considered “good”. The Strugatskys put it very well: “The hypothesis of God, for example, provides an incomparable opportunity to understand absolutely everything without learning anything… Give a person an extremely simplified system of the world, and interpret every event on the basis of this simplified model. This approach does not require any knowledge.”