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Talk49 min

Evolution of Religious Beliefs

Lewis Wolpert · CERN

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About

Humans may be distinguished from all other animals in having beliefs about the causal interaction of physical objects. Causal beliefs are a developmental primitive in human children; animals, by contrast, have very few causal beliefs. The origin of human causal beliefs comes from the evolutionary advantage it gave in relation to complex tool making and use. Causal beliefs gave rise religion and mystical thinking as our ancestors wanted to know the causes of events that affected their lives..

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The talk

  1. Evolution of Religious Beliefs 2009-08-13 · 49 min · CERN's player

Credits and licence

Institution
CERN
Department
CERN Colloquium
Speaker
Lewis Wolpert
Year
2009
Language
English
Subjects
Biology
Source
CERN
Licence
CERN, as CERN states it. CERN's terms
Attribution
© CERN. CERN provides its audiovisual media free of charge for educational and informational use, credited to CERN; this lecture is shown in CERN's own player.
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