Chapter One
Summary: Did Man Create God? It will never be possible to prove whether God exists or not. This has been the subject of thousands of writers over the centuries, and the conclusion is always the same - since God is a supernatural force and thus beyond the realm of natural law, the existence of God cannot be proven or disproven. Certainly, proving that something does not exist is arguably more difficult than proving it exists. If you find it, it must exist, end of story. If you don't find it, one could always argue you did not look in the right places. I start with that point as a given. As pointed out in the Introduction, the questions "Did Man Create God?" or, "Is the Theory of God a man-made theory?" are fundamentally different from the question "Does God Exist?" It is perfectly possible that the answer to the question, "Did Man Create God?" is "Yes," and yet a God, different than the one man made, still exists.
The concept that man created God is not original to me. It has been around for a long time. While the history of this question is related to the history of atheism, I will only relate those aspects of the history of atheism that directly relate to the question, Did man create God? as distinct from the issue of whether God does or does not exist. For the interested reader, the history of the successes and failures of atheism per se, are well reviewed by Alister McGrath in his book, The Twilight of Atheism.
One early example relating to the idea that man created God was proposed by Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880). Her pen name was George Elliot. She was a prominent advocate of atheism in Victorian England. Well versed in the German language, she translated Friedrich Strauss's book, Life of Jesus. Based on the growing skepticism of biblical miracles, including the resurrection, Strauss sought to explain how Christians came to believe when there was no objective historical basis for their faith. She concluded that:
Religion is ultimately an expression of the human mind's ability to generate myths in the first place and then interpret them as truths revealed by God.
In the following sections I will use the term Theory of God to refer to a theory that is similar to other man-made theories such as the theory of evolution, the theory of relativity, or the theory of the atom. Theories are developed to explain the seemingly unexplainable. They may be based on a series of facts, such as the Theory of Evolution, or they may be based on thought experiments, such as the Theory of Relativity, or the Theory of God. Referring to the question of whether man was the author of the Theory of God rather than to the question "Did man create God?" might be less objectionable to some readers. However, the basic concept is the same.
Definition of God
One of the problems that arose when man formulated the Theory of God is the definition of God. The National Catholic Almanac suggests the use of the following terms to describe God: almighty, eternal, holy, immortal, immense, immutable, incomprehensible, ineffable, infinite, invisible, unknowable, just, loving, merciful, wise, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, perfect, supreme, and true. 6 As pointed out by George Smith most of the terms such as eternal, immortal, immense, immutable, incomprehensible, ineffable, infinite, invisible, unknowable, omnipresent, and perfect are indistinguishable from nothingness. The remaining terms such as loving, just, merciful, holy, and wise are anthropomorphic. These features suggest that when man conceived the Theory of God he created God in the image of the best parts of himself. Then to add an aura of transcendency to his creation, he added a series of impressive sounding traits that in essence were indistinguishable from nothing.
God has also been described as omniscient, in that he knows everything, past, present, and future. The problem with omniscience is that if God knows the future with infallible certainty, the future is predetermined and man is impotent to change it.
Without volition, morality becomes meaningless. We cannot blame or praise a man for an action over which he has no control. Without volition the Christian scheme of salvation is a farce; men are predestined for either heaven or hell, and they have no voice in the matter ... the Christian is forever plagued with the dilemma of preaching a religion of salvation to a world of men who, according to the doctrine of omniscience, are nothing more than automatons.
All of these problems are eliminated if man is the author of the Theory of God. Man makes mistakes in logic and also produces inconsistencies in his sacred books. God does not.
The Creation Theory
Over the entire history of mankind, one of the major reasons for evoking the existence of a God or Gods was to explain what was then the unexplainable. How was the universe created? The stars? The earth? The plants and animals? Man? In the past few centuries, science has been able to produce explanations that are viable alternatives to the concept of God The Creator. In Parts I and II, I hope to have convinced the reader that Darwin's proposal of evolution by natural selection is perfectly adequate to explain the origin of all life on earth and there are no irreducibly complex aspects of nature that require a God to fill in the gaps. An Intelligent Designer is not required and need not apply for the job. Not only is such a designer not necessary it would only raise the question - Who created the Intelligent Designer?
In Part III, I hope to have convinced the reader that the weirdness of quantum physics includes the ability to create billions of universes out of space energy, out of virtually nothing. When the constants are just right, the random quantum fluctuations in space vacuum can result in a super rapid inflation leading to the birth of a stable universe capable of eventually supporting life. Neither the Big Bang nor the precise accuracy of specific constants as entertained in the Anthropic Principle prove the presence of an Intelligent Designer. By random chance one of the billions of embryonic quantum bubble fluctuations had the "right stuff" to make our universe. In Carl Sagan's words, 8 claiming that only a God could have managed to get the "stuff right" and the "right bubble" requires an answer to the question, "Who made the bubble maker?"
The complexity of nature, the apparent creation of the universe out of nothing, and the precision of the cosmological constants have repeatedly been proposed to have provided proof of the existence of God. The science reviewed in part III show that these arguments do not prove that God exists. However, just as they do not prove that God exists, they also do not prove that God does not exist. They do however provide strong evidence that man made up the Theory of God in an attempt to explain how the universe, the earth, and man were created. This supports the premise of this book that while the existence of God cannot be proven either way, one aspect of the question, "Did man create God?" can be answered "yes" with a reasonable degree of likelihood. Man was the originator of the portion of the Theory of God that proposed that God was the creator. Man made up this theory at a time when the level of knowledge in the natural sciences was at such a primitive level that this seemed to be the best theory available.
The Theory of the Soul
Part IV reviews the neurological location of many of the important functions of the human brain. The Theory of God has been applied to many other aspects of man's most troubling questions such as, "What happens to us when we die? Does the essence of us, our spirit and our soul live on after we die? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Is moral behavior rewarded by an eternal life of bliss in heaven? Are 21 virgins waiting for the Muslims who die fighting the infidels?" One of the central themes of this book is the remarkable ability of man to possess both a rational brain that critically analyzes and assesses all these important questions and a spiritual brain that does not care much about facts and just plunges ahead with its need to find the transcendent, to rise above mere mortality, and to connect with an all-encompassing spiritual presence.
As shown in the chapter on consciousness, while the exact mechanism or structures involved are still being debated, there is no debate among neuroscientists that consciousness itself is a product of the brain. Consciousness dies when the brain dies. The soul and spirit also die when the brain dies, and with it the promise of an afterlife, a heaven, a hell, eternal rewards for good behavior, and eternal damnation for bad behavior. Thus, these aspects of the Theory of God that relate to the concept of a soul, an afterlife, and eternal reward for good behavior, all die in the face of modern science.
The Prayer Theory
Other chapters in Part IV review many other components of the human brain-the areas mediating rational thought, planning for the future, experiencing pleasure, emotion, social interactions, meditation, hope and happiness. The dorsolateral frontal lobes control rational thinking. The limbic system is the emotional brain and the orbitofrontal lobes monitor social interactions and moral behavior. Pleasure, a critical aspect of basic survival, relates to eating and reproducing and is mediated by the dopaminergic reward pathways.
The brain also possesses the capacity for self-healing in the form of an enormously powerful placebo effect. The more people believe that some outside entity such as a physician, pill, herb, witch doctor or supernatural force will help them, the more likely it actually will. The more they believe that a personal God is there for them, the more effective the healing power of prayer will be. In personal prayer, the individuals pray for themselves or know they are being prayed for. This form of prayer can be effective. By contrast, in intercessory prayer, the individuals do not know someone is praying for them. This form of prayer that requires some type of supernatural power and has been shown not to work.
The Spiritual Brain
Neuroscience allows us to understand the existence of the spiritual brain, where it is and how it functions. This remarkable spiritual brain largely emanates from the temporal lobes. Within these structures lie the hippocampus, the center of regular memory, and the amygdala, the center of emotional memory. Other parts of the temporal lobes process the sensations of hearing and seeing. These come together to provide the neural substrate for powerful spiritual feelings.
A transcendent sense of spirituality may be produced when parts of the temporal lobes are stimulated by electrical probes, epileptic or partial seizures, psychedelic drugs, near-death experiences, prayer, religious services, rituals, various methods of meditation, speaking in tongues, or simply feelings of love. Some have called this the God part of the brain. It also allows us to understand that spiritual thoughts are intensely rewarding for man.
Neuroscience helps us to understand that there is a craving for a belief in something greater than ourselves, for a belief in the correctness of all aspects of the Theory of God. Understanding this also helps us to see that while the Theory of God is man-made, the feelings associated with the Theory of God are real and will never go away. This is similar to the above quote from Vince Sarich that even if man created God, it does not make God any less real or less powerful. Neuroscience helps our rational brain to understand this and to live in peace with the spiritual brain. As a result, it can be all right for an individual with a highly developed rational brain, such as a scientist, to also believe in the transcendent and, in some cases, to have a religious faith.
The last chapter of Part IV, on the biology of faith versus reason, shows how the spiritual brain can overpower the fact-driven rational brain. This is brought about by a number of factors including the fact that major decisions are made in the unconscious mind out of sight of the rational brain, and that man has evolved a built-in pleasurable craving for information and understanding that sometimes allows questions to be answered on the basis of faith in the complete absence of facts. In addition, neuroscience has shown that images, spoken words and phrases, and probably beliefs, that we have been repeatedly exposed to, can be instantly recalled from only a few neurons, and in some cases only one. This level of efficiency provides insight to why images and beliefs acquired early in childhood tend to be very resistant to change. It is understandable that an individual well steeped in the religious dogma of the family can grow up to be a scientist but still retain strong religious beliefs and irrational faiths.
An Inborn Moral Law
Part V reviewed the role of genes in controlling different aspects of our behavior. The environment, interacting with our genes, plays a role in controlling the different functions of the brain. In some cases genes play the major role, in some the environment plays the major role, while in most cases the environment and genes play about an equal role. Most functions of the brain are the result of polygenic inheritance - the interaction of many different genes, each with a small effect, and the environment. Since a given gene is usually responsible for less than one to two percent of the sum total of all forces producing a given trait, it is incorrect to speak of a "depression gene," an "alcoholism gene," or a "God gene." It is permissible to talk of depression genes, alcoholism genes, or spirituality genes.
Some have suggested that moral behavior in humans, the so-called Moral Law, could only have been divinely inspired and is thus proof of the existence of God. 9 However, based on genetic studies it is apparent that "bad behavior" or "antisocial behavior" is strongly genetic and is a relatively rare human trait. Good or altruistic behavior is also under significant genetic control and is as common as antisocial behavior is rare, and is exhibited by many species other than our own. Religion may help us to behave, but we can behave compassionately and well on our own. Moral Law is an inborn behavior, not a divine one.
Intelligence is under greater genetic control than most other human traits. Innate spirituality, independent of religion, is also under strong genetic control. Not surprisingly, religious affiliation and church-going per se are largely under environmental control, but genes also play a part. However, spirituality itself, the driving force behind a need for religion and a need for man to formulate a Theory of God, has a strong genetic component.
Spirituality: An Evolved Trait
The genes for spirituality and the functions they serve did not just happen. They evolved. Part VI shows the role of evolution and natural selection for both the high level of human intelligence and the high level of human spirituality. Both were critical for man's survival. A high level of intelligence provided man with the ability to make tools and function in a complex society. While the great apes also made tools and functioned in a social framework, with the added advantage of speech, humans have carried this to a much higher level. While there are many reasons why the development of spirituality had a survival value, it is likely that the most important reason was to enhance a unique level of mutually cooperative social interaction and cohesiveness.
Other Aspects of Religion and Spirituality
A number of other interesting aspects of religion and human spirituality are reviewed in Part VII. These include the origin of the world's major religions, the role of mysticism, myth, ritual, and even psychedelic drugs in the origin of religions, the question of whether God plays favorites, such that one religion is better than another, the evil and the good of religion, the problem of evil, and the question of the inerrancy of the Bible.
Multiple Religions
While there are three major religions in the West, and a somewhat greater number in the East, over the course of his time on earth, man has actually produced 100,000 different religions. Since God would have been better served with a "one for all, all for one religion," this clearly suggests that the plethora of religions and Gods were all produced by man to suit his needs at a given place and a given time.
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Excerpted from Did Man Create God?by David E. Comings Copyright © 2008 by Hope Press. Excerpted by permission.
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