The Believing Brain: Evolution, Neuroscience, and the Spiritual Instinct

God, they say, is in the details. But could God also be in our frontal lobes? Every culture from the dawn of humankind has imagined planes of existence beyond the reach of our senses, spiritual domains that shape our Earthly experiences. Why do beliefs of the fantastic hold such powerful sway over our species? Is there something in our evolutionary history that points to an answer? Does neuroscience hold the key? Straddling the gap between science and religion, Brian Greene is joined by renowned neuroscientists, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists, to explore one of the most profound mysteries of our existence.

PARTICIPANTS: Lisa Barrett, Barbara J. King, Zoran Josipovic, Steven Pinker

MODERATOR: Brian Greene

This program is part of the BIG IDEAS SERIES, made possible with support from the JOHN TEMPLETON FOUNDATION.

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TOPICS:
0:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Overview of religious beliefs
12:15 - Panelist intros
14:27 - Panelists share personal religious beliefs
18:28 - Broadening our views of belief
19:15 - Do other animals have a sense of spirituality?
20:50 - What is evolutionary psychology?
27:51 - Are humans wired for belief?
32:36 - Is there evidence of an internal predilection of religious belief?
37:46 - Searching for the origin of religious belief
45:21 - Is there an adaptive value of religious belief?
49:31 - Advantages of religious belief relating to the nervous system
55:24 - Why has religion persisted for so long?
1:00:30 - Religion as an emotional response vs a social mechanism
1:08:20 - The future of the role of religion
1:14:15 - What would aliens think of our religious beliefs?

PROGRAM CREDITS:
- Produced by John Plummer
- Associate Produced by Laura Dattaro
- Opening media created by Josh Zimmerman
- Music provided by APM
- Additional images and footage provided by: Getty Images, Shutterstock, Videoblocks

This program was recorded live at the 2018 World Science Festival and has been edited and condensed for YouTube.

[bonnie]

The most educated minds are still human. No one can ever know the vastness or the beginnings of time and universe. We don't know what we don't know. And that's ok.

[lk]

For me, it is very interesting that from eastern old philosophy, they CLOSE their eyes and they do their study, observation, and meditation, and they gain wisdom and knowledge. For example, Buddha did this way. In western philosophy, they OPEN their eyes and they do their study, observation, and calculation, and they gain discoveries and knowledge. In both cases, the doer is human, the curious human. We need to seek the combined knowledge from both ways to get a better understanding of human inside out.

[Christ_Is_Life-]

This is an important topic. I wish there was room for more diversity of experiences.

[Rob_aka_CancelProof]

I guess that Pink Floyd concert when I was 20 and had a Pocketful of windowpane and seats on the 14th row Center Stage would qualify as a spiritual experience as it still leads to a physical reaction when I remember the saxophone solo for Shine On You Crazy Diamond and how completely transfixed I was at the time I can still feel the wind flowing through the hair I could grow at the time and the security guards hand on my shoulder because I was standing on my chair LMAO

[buk]

Awareness is the key to discovery. Every animal and every human has the ability to be aware

[justkidding]

I'd love to see this panel take Ayahuasca and then talk again on the same subject 💫💖💫

[Liciablyth]

Thank you to the organizers, the Brian Greene and the panelists for sharing your years of knowledge and research.

[jwvandegronden]

1:14:16 what a beautiful and inquisitive question and what a downer of a response by the panel except for only one who understood the thought experiment. Mr. Greene never fails to impress me, including his follow up questions which are instrumental to the quality of the conversation!

The end is very telling: they all come down with a bad case of materialism except for Zoran Josipovic

I woke up too the last chapters of this conversation and thanks to Mr Zoran Josipovic i'm eager to rewatch it in it's entirety!

[patcropper]

I've spent the last 2 years searching for answers to questions purpose, meaning, reason, and spirituality through physics, philosophy, ideology. I got to obsessed with trying to find answers while going through some sort of midlife crisis...often losing track of whats truly important in my life.
Now, all i seek is to get rid of this tension in my 💀&❤.
I can only assume this has happened to at least some other ppl too. I wish I could give advice, but I can't. Well, maybe 1 thing...connection is good.

[natraajgarima]

Zoran Josipovic ❤
Was the gold in this wonderful discussion.
Speaking so clearly and articulate about consciousness and the experience. I have had the experience and I can manage it now again and again in my meditation but could never find words to explain all of this in words so well like he did.

And I read many trying to explain consciousness but never before was such an attempt made. Now have to read more of his books and research. Nice discovery for me today.

Thanku Sir Brian Greene. You are not just a Physics hero but more.

[TheListener]

Thank you all!! If I could add, I wish we could stop creating the void between religions and realize how completely the same most are. Again. Thank you!

[edwoods]

I considered myself an agnostic until I completed grade 12 physics at the same time I discovered the Emerald Tablet. Learning that Newton was one of the translators of it realised that they're both describing the same concepts. I literally found God through understanding physics

[frankwestphal]

At the root of all this are questions. They are the purest form of curiosity. I have found that a great way to tap into the conciseness of the universe and beings within it, is to lay in a dark quiet room and ask questions. When we ask questions we are by default listening instead of thinking. And we can listen with our minds just like we listen with our ears. Ask a question. Did you hear an answer? Did you feel an emotion? Where did those come from? Are the answers or feelings anything you could have possibly ever thought of individually? Congratulations. You are possibly talking to the universe or other beings within just like us, maybe non physical though. Ask if it is the universe. Ask if it's something/someone else. Ask who you are talking to. Ask specific questions. When you're connected, you can have a conversation. It is absolutely profound. Nikola Tesla talked about this exact thing. He said he would get information from an external source then work out the mechanics of the concept(s) in his mind, then build it in physical reality. I have done this. I do this. Many others do as well. Most of us do it daily and don't even realize it. Consciously realizing that you are connected, is a profound experience. I think this is what people have experienced when they say they have felt God come into their lives.

And I love what the Dalai Lama said. I've come to the same conclusion. When reaching into the depths of science and combining that with an amazing first hand personal experience, I have come to the conclusion that the universe is a conscious being, and that all things in it are conscious as well. The reason there is something instead of nothing, is becasue of the universe's conscious intent to explore and understand itself. And that it is consciousness which holds together pockets of low entropy, where things like the equations of classic physics hold true as long as that consciousness holds those areas together. Without science we could not create the things we do in this particular pocket of low entropy. But without the consciousness of the universe, it would not exist to begin with. And then there's free will... The universe intentionally gave us a free will, so that we could help it explore itself and ourselves at the same time. Over billions of years, we too can become creators of universes. In a sense, we can catch up with the universe's rate of creation and understand it in it's entirety. At that point, there is nothing left to learn or explore here, so we create our own universe to continue learning and exploring. And the universe wants that for us. It encourages to become co creators. That's why, although exploration is very hard, it is rewarded greatly in many different forms.

[marykarensolomon]

This was an interesting conversation, but I wish a religious somebody (Father Guy? A Tibetan Priest?)had been included to round out viewpoints with their understanding and insight.

[paulszymanski]

Amazing 67 minutes of intelectual experience- WOW! We need more of such events in the current world

[jaggery]

Wonderful talk ! I am an open minded person and proud and happy to say that I am Hindu. I follow my religion and my Gods not because of religion sake but because when I prey to my Idol of God or a picture of a god, It brings my body physically, mentally and emotionally in HARMONY and in Balance with whatever Elements are there which regulates our Human Bodies. Can not explain anything scientifically but just through personal experience. God is a Moral Support when you need him/ her. We need someone when there is no one to depend on. Why we have different religions because everyone feels better by following one a kind god. We all are different so we all follow different gods. But pushing someone or dragging someone to follow their own religion to expand their religion in the world is WRONG. Extremely WRONG. Follow what you BELIEVE IN. That's my Way.

[janetkelly]

The biggest concerns for our reawakening species from forced amnesia we must develop mental and spiritual defenses that have been forgotten and even labeled mischievously as wrong knowledge but reality is these unseen entities are as real as the seen and our mankind connection is not yet recognized and needs to be. It literally is a survival tool

[legolas]

The problem that I find in this type of conversation is the question "do you believe in God"? The real question being ask is :Do you believe in the same concept of God that I do? How does a person not believe in something without accepting there is something to not believe.

[nrrn]

We exist in fields of electromagnetism, some of us have very keen perception and may be able to absorb another's energy or at least acknowledge some of it within the fields of energy transferance

[aidaririvera]

Thank you Prof. Green or whoever is choosing these meaningful and insightful conferences worthy of watching! Particularly this one on Jung is brief but with a lot of information. Thank you!