Home Architecture Talk - do Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination?

do Humans alone practice religion because they're the only creatures to have evolved imagination?

No animals, not even our nearest relatives the chimpanzees, can do this, argues Bloch. Instead, he says, they're restricted to the mundane and Machiavellian social interactions of everyday life, of sparring every day with contemporaries for status and resources. And the reason is that they can't imagine beyond this immediate social circle, or backwards and forwards in time, in the same way that humans can. Bloch believes our ancestors developed the necessary neural architecture to imagine before or around 40-50,000 years ago, at a time called the Upper Palaeological Revolution, the final sub-division of the Stone Age. At around the same time, tools that had been monotonously primitive since the earliest examples appeared 100,000 years earlier suddenly exploded in sophistication, art began appearing on cave walls, and burials began to include artefacts, suggesting belief in an afterlife, and by implication the "transcendental social". http://www.dimaggio.org/Heretic/God%20on%20the%20Brain.htm REPOSTED DUE TO BEING REPORTED AND DELETED (TWICE)

Public Comments

sure. u need a whole lot of imagination to invent this stuff
You finally got it? Which shows religion is imaginary.
As humans evolved, the fear of death became of great concern, so religion was created as a way of dealing with it.
hmmm...not sure because orangutans don't practice a religion and yet they have imagination, and quite impressive levels of intelligence.
I believe that humans are the only creatures that play with them selves as well. That should get us deleted the third time.
Probably. They invented laws and morals as well. That must have been the beginning of story-telling and legends too.
Isn't a better example of imagination those who believe in evolutionary theory ? I mean when you really look in depth as to what evolutionist really believe doesn't in more line up with a fiery tale ? I find the bible a more likely prospect then what they believe.
blaze, you got it religion is imaginary and made up of atheist!
Bloch is incorrect. While animals may not construct churches and temples due to their inability to do so, we cannot make judgments about their spiritual abilities or awareness. Indeed chimpanzees have been observed to perform rituals when passing certain areas of particular natural beauty, such as waterfalls. Elephants have been observed to wail, weep and perform rituals over their dead. In terms of imagination, there is considerable evidence that other animals with large brains (some have larger relative brains than humans) such as dolphins and whales are quite creative and imaginative. Whales call each other by name and sing complex songs to communicate for example.
another example of argument being accepted as evidence
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The evolution of imagination is probably lifes greatest development to date. There is no better survival tool than the ability to imagine a situation and think through the different possibilities. Unfortunately like many of lifes experiments, imagination has a flaw. Buy giving us the ability to believe in things we can't see, we can invent fantasies that work against lifes obvious goals. Religion is one such fantasy. It is akin to a computer virus, or a mental illness, and until we can find a cure for it, our progress will be hindered.
OK, but does that mean you are saying atheists lack imagination ? :-P Also what about Elephant death rituals ? _()_
That's silly. We have no idea what animals are thinking. Even if they could speak there thoughts in clear English we still would have no idea. I imagine they do at least believe in the devil and depict him in human form.
without an image, one cannot think.
can you repeat that question