Lewis Wolpert - Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast - The Evolutionary Origins of Belief - Part 1 - Introduction

Professor Lewis Wolpert FRS
Lewis Wolpert is a Rationalist who appeals to reason as a source of knowledge or justification & in which the criterion of truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive. He is a Materialist and Vice President of the British Humanist Association . He describes himself as a Reductionist Materialist Atheist or an Atheist Reductionst Materialist (the difference escapes me). He is not religious and knows of no good evidence for God. Nor has he any beliefs in the spiritual world or paranormal happenings. A commited scientist he views science as the best way of understanding the world.

Synopsis
Why do 70 per cent of Americans believe in angels, and thousands more that they have been abducted by aliens? Why does every society around the world have a religious tradition of some sort? What makes people believe in things when all the evidence points to the contrary? Why do 13 per cent of British scientists touch wood? In "Through the Looking Glass", the White Queen tells Alice that to believe in a wildly improbable fact she simply needs to 'draw a long breath and shut your eyes'. Alice finds this advice ridiculous. But don't almost all of us, at some time or another, engage in magical thinking? Professor Lewis Wolpert investigates the nature of belief and its causes. He looks at belief's psychological basis and its possible evolutionary origins in physical cause and effect. How did toolmaking drive human evolution? Is it the lack of an explanation about fundamental questions which is truly intolerable? Are we born with an evolutionary propensity to believe in things that make us feel better? Wolpert explores the different types of belief - including that of animals, of children, of the religious, and of those suffering from psychiatric disorders. And he asks whether it is possible to live without belief at all, or whether it is a necessary component of a functioning society.

Introduction
Why is their a general absense of belief in the scientific method - verging on an anti-science movement? Surely science and the necessity for evidence is the best way to understand how the world works. By corollory why is the belief in the unbelievable so prevalent - from religion, aliens, telepathy and angels? How can people believe in something without a shred of reliable evidence? His aim is to understand what people believe about causal events (an example would be good here).

What distinguishes our thinking and beliefs from other animals and how has this been a part of evolution. How has our brain structure evolved? Our genes determine how our brains will work whilst culture, learning and nurture are of secondary importance. Evolutionary adaptiveness of the mind produces our behaviours, thoughts and beliefs helping humans to survive better.