Xref: utzoo alt.drugs:9576 alt.atheism:7945 alt.pagan:5532 sci.skeptic:9146 talk.religion.misc:36138 sci.bio:4445 sci.med:23153 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!honig From: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig) Newsgroups: alt.drugs,alt.atheism,alt.pagan,sci.skeptic,talk.religion.misc,sci.bio,sci.med Subject: Re: Drugs as Origin of Religion Keywords: addiction drugs religion legalization Message-ID: <27C2AD16.24022@ics.uci.edu> Date: 20 Feb 91 17:08:38 GMT References: <1991Feb15.125244.25171@news.cs.indiana.edu> <1991Feb19.233028.19992@midway.uchicago.edu> Reply-To: honig@ics.uci.edu (David Honig) Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS Lines: 26 In article <1991Feb19.233028.19992@midway.uchicago.edu> den0@quads.uchicago.edu (funky chicken) writes: >IMHO, this theory should be obvious. Profound religious experiences >involve non-ordinary states of consciousness. Period. This doesn't >necessarily mean that every religious experience involves leaving your >body and being taught how to fly by psychedlic jesus jellyfish, drugs >need not be involved and there are plenty of different religious "highs." I think a very interesting question is, What are those circuits doing there in the first place? Its easy to understand what the circuits for, e.g., love, ie, pair-bonding are for: humans take forever to raise, and its easier if you have two helping. Many animals share these features. I've read that it was useful in smaller societies to have the ability to bond to one's tribe and feel brotherhood; of course this has been exploited in patriotism and is part of many modern religions. So, an interesting question is: Are states of religious awe and ecstacy artifacts or have they been selected for? -- David Honig .."Think anyone will mind that I don't have a tie?" ---Cliff Stoll .."Don't worry," Bob said. "At your level of abstraction, it doesn't make any difference" ---Robert Morris, chief scientist, NSA Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com