When we were trying to figure out a metaphor for God in class, we came up with a Don because they establish rules, protect those who follow the rules, and deal judgment to those who do not follow the rules. A previous correlation to this system of action and response according to right, good, or even customary practices was a vending machine. When you enter the correct amount of money and press the corresponding buttons the predicted product is produced. What is not perceived as good does not “compute” with the God machine. Error! Yet, the followers can also sense the error. The product from the vending machine is worth the selected monetary value paid as it is worth it to follow God’s rules in order to achieve a good place in his judgment (and to avoid cherubic harm). In many ways, both of these metaphors are the same. Still, a few questions remain about why it is up to God to decide what is right or wrong and whether humans already knew, before the creation of the Ten Commandments, what would happen if they committed a wrong. Do people need God’s guidance or can they function morally on their own?
If you take a moment to imagine a time when humans exist without God, the place imagined is probably populated with people that behave more like animals. In order to answer why humans would follow rules of a God becomes established with the formation of societies made up of people following similar values. However, the way that people are made, biologically, also determines how and why they structure their society. Religiously speaking, people did not evolve from animals. The order of creation is that God rules over humans, humans rule over animals, and animals were created by God for humans. The behaviorist psychologist Ivan Pavlov presented an example of how animals correlate stimulus to predicted reward. He developed a theory of conditioned reflex where a sounded bell signaled the dog to salivate because the sound was associated to food. In religion, people have a ‘reflex’ known as the Book of Psalms that contains accounts of God’s judgments. The order of judgments is made according to certain laws that are accounted in the Psalm, but are only reactionary to the Commandments … what is laid out by God. After reading this book they made more aware of the consequences of immoral behavior.
Quotation taken from Pavov’s Conditioned Reflexes: An Investgation of the Psysiological Activity of the Cerebral Cortex lecture I in 1927.
“As another example of a reflex which is very much neglected we may refer to what may be called the investigatory reflex. I call it the "What-is-it?" reflex. It is this reflex which brings about the immediate response in man and animals to the slightest changes in the world around them, so that they immediately orientate their appropriate receptor organ in accordance with the perceptible quality in the agent bringing about the change, making full investigation of it. The biological significance of this reflex is obvious. If the animal were not provided with such a reflex its life would hang at every moment by a thread. In man this reflex has been greatly developed with far-reaching results, being represented in its highest form by inquisitiveness -- the parent of that scientific method through which we may hope one day to come to a true orientation in knowledge of the world around us.”
The feelings and responses in reaction to sinning are innate. Translating Pavlov in the quotation above, people would be able to anticipate what will happen when we sin biologically by the way our brain is structured. By having this investigatory reflex there is less surprise to those who know “what’s coming to them” if they sin. The society and our innate biological reflexes may determine answers to those questions.
What a great post! I love that when you do ask people what they see what they think of a "God-less" world they think mayhem. I think Pavlov's study is a great way to show that our brain and behavior is structured such that we know what we are doing and what our rewards and punishments will be for an act committed.This study proves that a person can be conditioned to act in a certain way because it triggers something inside. .. Great study, and great example!! :)
ReplyDeleteI like the parallel between Pavlov's experiments and religion, and a bit ironic concerning the earlier is science religion debate in class, but I disagree with the bit about people behaving like animals without god. I suppose if you are using the term god loosely then maybe, but you have to look back and see that homo sapiens began to act "human-like" before evidence of religion is seen. However, you're right just because the archaeological record doesn't show something doesn't mean it isn't there, but even then as we move through the progression of society structures there is not a god in the way we think of god. I do still very much like the question "do people need a godd if they can morally function on their own?" That's a good one, and I hope we can talk about it in class.
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