h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The biological basis of belief - A858936
Author: Noggin the Nog - U195809

Entry A858936 : The Biological Basis of Belief.

Author U195809 : Noggin the Nog

This is an entry for A853751 The uni project on the Structure and Function of Belief.

It's not complete, but I've gone about as far as I can without some feedback.

Ooops. I had not subscribed to this thread.

Sorry!

B

aha! This is very interesting indeed.

quite difficult to express, i imagine, but i think you're succeeding at least to a certain extent.

Ben will understand that this is the point i was expecting to hear more about in another entry; the one on the 'evolutionary function of belief'.

You talk about that fact that our assumptions about the percieved 'real' world can be classified as 'beliefs'.

We believe that if we fall off the edge of a cliff, we may be hurt or even killed. We have learnt this through millions of years of development. That belief is key to survival. Humans aren't the only living things with this capacity for 'belief' - it is intrinsic to the development of 'survival instinct'.

But humans have a highly developed capacity for learning, remembering, and abstract thought. And,as you say, we have language, and that further complicates things.

From 'believing' we come to 'know' that not only will the sun rise in the East tomorrow, but that spring will follow winter, and that crops planted in spring will ripen and be ready in autumn.

Not surprising that at periods where 'knowledge' was limited, but questions were asked anyway, humans began to 'believe' things that were not as easily verified as the sun rising.

What *is* the sun? And *why* does it come back every day and keep us warm and make our crops grow?

Easy! It's a 'god' - infinitely more powerful than we humans and capable of mysterious acts of awsome power.

am i rambling?

Yes, the entries in the project should all compliment each other, the subject is way too big to cover in one entry.



B

Y'all have read this in the other WW threads. I am proposing to close the bar on the project at the end of Jan, so any polishing, re-writing, stitching and tying, weeding, pruning or planting out needs to be completed by then.

Thanks for the hard work and the interst, guys.

B

Jimster has cast his eye over the project as a whole and made some comments here: F51226?thread=238444&latest=1

It is exciting to see such a postitive response from the Italics to this!

B
*spamming WW for the sake of speed*

This clearly is still a work in progress, and oone I hope Noggin can complete. I like it. I want it for the Project. It fits with A928172 and A853814.

I am not entirely sure what to do about this - let's hope that Noggin completes it with at least a concluding paragraph.

Ben

How is this, and the other entries in WW, coming along? Has it ground to a halt?

Not a grinding halt, but a blaze of lights. As I've said elsewhere, most of these belief entries were published in the Uni Project on Belief way back when.

I'll pull my ones out of the WW tomorrow when I am using that account.

Ben

Thanks

No probs. It was lazy of me to have left them here. I cannot remove the ones which are part of the project but not actually by me, of course.

Btw, if you find anything vaguely UnderGuideable or suitable for the Post or for CAC then please do send it in the direction of the AWW rather than the Flea Market, would you?

Ta!

Ben

This wants moving back to entry - it is part of a completed project and I think it was left here by accident. Seconders?

I am the author, and I second that

I am a Scout and I third it.