Religion, Language and the Human Brain

Did you know that the latest theory regarding the development of languages is that not only did human brain regions come to develop to deal with itm but that languages have developed in ways that accomodate themselves to the human brain?

Babels Dawn Blog

Neither did I.

Some of the evidence for this comes from a study in which a new rule-less language, consisting simply of "words", the sounds of which had been randomly generated by a computer, with meanings based on simple associations is taught to one person. Partly because there is no established syntax, it is rather difficult to learn, but given enough time and effort, eventually the learner manages to say things. This is where the fun start. A second person learns the language entirely by copying the first person's way of using it. Then a third person learns through the second person's use of the language, and so on.

Somewhere along the line, "magic" happens. By the time the 10th person begins to learn it, the language has become much simpler to learn, the sound of it has developed regularities, and it has syntax.

Very interesting. I wonder if any kind of similar approach could be taken to the development of religion.

Religion comes to mind because of another article, this time in the Economist.

EU tackles religion via science

It seems that the EU will be using two million € to study the biological bases for religious belief.

I'm not sure whether that amount of money would be sufficient, but I'm wondering whether a study similar to the study on the development of languages could be done. It seems to me that since religion and language are two of the basic behavioral markers of humanness there might well be commonalities in the way they developed.

There are differences, of course. In general, people don't fight over languages, though sometimes some folks in the US seem to come close to it. And there are a number of instances in history when an ethnic minority clung at considerable risk to their language. Barcelona and the rest of the Catlan region of Spain during the Franco years was such a place. And let's add dance to the list, because the cultural folk dance is another cultural marker closely held. Ask any Barcelonan about the Sardana.

Also, dance and religion have in common the characteristic of not bestowing any obvious benefits, as language does, to those practising them.

The EU research efforts will be "designed to look at the mental mechanisms needed to represent an omniscient deity, whether (and how) belief in such a “surveillance-camera” God might improve reproductive success to an individual's Darwinian advantage, and whether religion enhances a person's reputation—for instance, do people think that those who believe in God are more trustworthy than those who do not? The researchers will also seek to establish whether different religions foster different levels of co-operation, for what reasons, and whether such co-operation brings collective benefits, both to the religious community and to those outside it."

I'm tired now, so I'll stop, but the rest of the Economist article is very interesting indeed. If what I have said interests you, do read it.