Why we Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being

"Belief is the most prominent, promising, and dangerous capacity that humanity has evolved.

Belief is the ability to draw on our range of cognitive and social resources, our histories and experiences, and combine them with our imagination. It is the power to think beyond what is here and now and develop mental representations in order to see and feel and know something - an idea, a vision, a necessity, a possibility, a truth - that is not immediately present to the senses, and then to invest, wholly and authentically, in that "something" so that it becomes one's reality.

Beliefs and belief systems permeate human neurobiology's, bodies, and ecologies, acting as dynamic agents in evolutionary processes. The human capacity for belief, the specifics of belief and our diverse belief systems structure and shape our daily lives, our societies, and the world around us. we are human, therefore we believe."

in

Why we Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being

by Agustin Fuentes