What are scientific explanation of beliefs?

Answer 1

Superstitious beliefs can be explained by evolution and survival of the fittest in early hominoids on the plains of Africa. For example, let's say there was an early hominoid, Lucy. Lucy was taking a stroll and heard a rustle in the bushes. Chances are, it could be nothing but the wind, or it could be a predator. If Lucy had been superstitious and believed that it was nothing, she could turn out to be right and would have saved a few seconds in her daily routine. However, if it turns out that there was a hungry lion, then Lucy has just been eliminated in the game of evolution. She would not have survived long enough to produce offspring.

On the other hand, if Lucy had held a superstitious belief that something was there, she would have wasted a few seconds to take precautions from being killed, even if it turns out that nothing was there. In the long run, she would have survived long enough to produce offspring, who will become the ancestors of modern humans. This pattern-seeking trait is then embedded into our genes.

This kind of superstitious behavior is not only found in humans, but in lab mice as well. In one experiment, lab mice were placed in a cage with a lever, and food would be given to the mouse after random pulls of the lever. It is found that the mice would then do whatever they had done before the lever was pulled (such as running in circles and scratching body parts) in hopes of getting more food. This is like the conditioning of Pavlov's dog (a bell was rung before the dog was served food, so the dog eventually learned to associate the bell with food and will salivate to the sound of the bell, even if it was not given food).

Early humans understood very little about the natural world, and relied on crude observations. They sought patterns, and as events chanced together, they would believe that it explained natural phenomena.