Here is a very interesting read.
Scientific American : Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World
In short, human (and animal) brains are designed to find predictive patterns in their environment. For example, predicting that the rustle of the grass is linked to the approach of a predator. Finding meaningful patterns in meaningless noise is a concept called patternicity.
However our brains did not evolve to discriminate between true and false patterns. The consequence for humans has been to imagine all kinds of supernatural messages in their environment. This is why some of us believe in ghosts, demons, gods, spirits of nature, UFO's, government conspiracies or other invisible forces. This is also why some people attribute magical power to some food, or believe that eating bananas or eels with enhance male fertility.
The article explains that there is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience to prove this.
Evolution has played a major role in our innate reactions. Animals can easily be fooled by their instincts, but humans are no exception. Children typically think that the sun or the moon are alive and draw eyes and a mouth when they represent them. Education permits modern humans to know that the sun isn't alive or isn't a deity (as was believed in most ancient cultures). But false associations are still extremely common among the less scientific-minded. In fact, the more advanced a society becomes and the more complex and abstract invisible forces become. Who could have imagined stories about aliens drawing a face on Mars a few centuries ago ? Nevertheless complexity does not make them truer.
Scientific American : Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World
In short, human (and animal) brains are designed to find predictive patterns in their environment. For example, predicting that the rustle of the grass is linked to the approach of a predator. Finding meaningful patterns in meaningless noise is a concept called patternicity.
However our brains did not evolve to discriminate between true and false patterns. The consequence for humans has been to imagine all kinds of supernatural messages in their environment. This is why some of us believe in ghosts, demons, gods, spirits of nature, UFO's, government conspiracies or other invisible forces. This is also why some people attribute magical power to some food, or believe that eating bananas or eels with enhance male fertility.
The article explains that there is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience to prove this.
Evolution has played a major role in our innate reactions. Animals can easily be fooled by their instincts, but humans are no exception. Children typically think that the sun or the moon are alive and draw eyes and a mouth when they represent them. Education permits modern humans to know that the sun isn't alive or isn't a deity (as was believed in most ancient cultures). But false associations are still extremely common among the less scientific-minded. In fact, the more advanced a society becomes and the more complex and abstract invisible forces become. Who could have imagined stories about aliens drawing a face on Mars a few centuries ago ? Nevertheless complexity does not make them truer.