Thursday, February 28, 2008

"Evil, Sin and the Devil" - Getting a grip (Part I)

Having seen my brother (Pastor Mike) become ever more unhinged, and his use of "evil", "sin" and "Devil" multiply with his delusions, it is time to get a grip. Is he talking-writing of actual, objective realities, or blowing gaseous emissions out of his mouth (and mind) that bear no semblance to the real world?

In truth, the use of the word “evil” is freighted with superstitious baggage, of little use in a rational –technological age. It presumes origination from “a negative supernatural force” or “Satan”. It overly complicates the issue while unnecessarily adding theoretical existences. We already know in this case that brain structures (e.g. amygdala, reticular formation etc.) can account for all atavistic behaviors from misdirected lust, to baby killing to mass murder or genocide. One need not invent a supernatural special being or super Devil to account for them!

About a year ago, I also took Wendy Kaminer to task in an issue of Free Inquiry (‘Religious vs. Secular Concepts; April/May 2007, p. 65), for an earlier piece in which she (a claimed secularist) used the loaded terms “sin” and “evil”. Kaminer replied in a short note to my letter , basically averring she had no intention of altering her “attachment to moral categories of good and evil.” This is her prerogative and right, of course, but doesn’t alter my own point one iota. That if Kaminer (or anyone else) embraces such attachment then she is more rightly a religionist and not a secularist. Secular people refrain from using religious words, labels, concepts or language in the sense of positively incorporating them into a secular Zeitgeist..


But let us return to my pastor brother's contentions, and in particular his question: ‘Can an atheist deny the existence of evil?’

I maintain that denial of “evil” is not the issue, but primitive language use is. Thus, “evil” is an antiquated and redundant term since what people refer to as “evil” is easily explainable in terms of brain evolution. Thus, Homo Sapiens is fundamentally an animal species with a host of animal/primitive instincts residing in its ancient brain or paleocortex.

Meanwhile, the paleocortex sits evolutionarily beneath the more evolved mesocortex and neocortex, the latter of which crafts concepts and language. One clever person has compared this tri-partite structure to a car design welding a Lamborghini to a Model T Ford chassis, with a 1957 Chevy engine to power the Lamborghini.

There is much evidence that the aggregate of human behavior will get progressively worse as the complexity inherent in technological and globalized societies increases, but brain evolution is unable to keep pace with it. Basically, we are a species with the capability of making nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles – but with Cro-Magnon brains – and a swatch of reptilian tendencies.

Indeed, the mixed brain design, in terms of adaptability to modern society, is already theorized as one major cause of depression and mental illness in modern society (e.g. The Noonday Demon, Chapter 11, ‘Evolution’, p 401)

The behavior resulting from this hybrid brain is bound to be mixed, reflecting the fact that we literally have three “brains” contending for emergence in one cranium. Behavior will therefore range from the most selfless acts (not to mention creative masterpieces) to savagery, carnal lust run amuck and addictions that paralyze purpose.

The mistake of the religionist is to associate the first mode of behavior with being “human” and not the latter. In effect, disowning most of the possible behaviors of which humans are capable.- and hence nine-tenths of what makes us what we are. Worse, not only disowning these behaviors but ascribing them to some antagonistic dark or negative supernatural force (“Satan”) thereby making them into a religious abstraction.

The neocortex then goes into over-drive, propelled by its ability to craft words for which no correspondents may exist in reality. Suddenly, our “souls” are at risk of being “lost to Satan” who will then fry us in “Hell”. In effect, the religionist’s higher brain centers divide reality into forces of darkness and light, just like the ancient Manicheans.

As the divide grows and persists, certain behaviorally idealistic expectations come to the fore, and a mass of negative or primitive actions is relegated to “evil”. Humans tuned in to this Zeitgeist, which is soon circulated everywhere, being to suppress all behaviors that they regard as defective or “sinful”. They don’t realize or appreciate that humans are risen apes, and not “fallen angels”.

Are we all “sinners” as Pastor Mike claims? No, we’re an animal species saddled with a tri-partite brain whose higher centers often become self aware of the gulf between the base, atavistic and primitive behaviors (emanating from the reptilian brain) and the ideal, non-atavistic behavior conceived by the neocortex. The neocortical language centers then craft the term “sin” to depict the gulf between one and the other.

In this context, the concept of “sin” makes eminent sense. Sin emerges as the label placed on specific brands and forms of “evil”. In reality, “Sin” itself is predicated on an exaggerated importance of humans in the universe. Thus, it elevates (albeit in a perverse way) the importance of humans in an otherwise meaningless cosmos. With “sin” the human has at least the potential of offending his deity – thereby getting its attention – as opposed to being relegated to the status of a cosmic “roach” (which any advanced alien sentience would regard us).

“Sin” then is localized and reactive behavior at the personal, individual level. “Sin” impinges on and affects the deity that so many believe in. Take away the deity, and sin loses its allure and quickly becomes redundant. How can there be “sin” if there is no deity to offend or to notice “sin”? To tote up all the little “black marks” in its “book of future judgment”.

“The Devil” or “Shaitan” is simply the projection of the most primitive brain imperatives onto the external world. And yes, this imperative (which I will soon get to in more detail in Part II) is capable of mass murder as well as genocides. A supernatural Satan need not be invoked here, only the ancient brain of reptiles – acting collectively – aided and abetted by a newly perverted neocortex, which now does the reptile brain’s bidding, as opposed to attempting to halt it.

The more real and present danger inheres in zealots and extremist religionists projecting their Satanic delusions on fellow humans, and thereby demonizing them to convert them into the most debased and vile outcasts. Thus does Pastor Mike refer to atheists as "agents of Satan" and "Satan's disciples" - as if the ability to merely question rigid or uncritical adherence to a faith qualifes as a demonic attribute.

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