The Role Of Stories In Humanity

[Storm]

So, I ran across this "article" (if you will) that makes some interesting statements about the role of stories in the Human experience. The headline that piqued my curiosity stated "Humans Evolved to Process Stories Better than Logic".

The article posts the following:

 

1. It is in our nature to need stories. We arrive “biologically prepared” for them. They were evolutionarily crucial. We feel and think in story-logic (story-causality configures our reaction-biology).

2. Like our language instinct, a story drive—inborn hunger to hear and make stories—emerges untutored (=“biologically prepared”).

3. “Every culture bathes its children in stories" (to explain how the world works, to educate their emotions).

4. Story patterns are like another layer of grammar—language patterning the character types, plots, and norms important in our culture.

5. Stories free us from the limits of direct experience, delivering feelings we don’t have to “pay for” (~like simulated people-physics experiments).

6. “Stories the world over are almost always about people... with problems.” Story = character(s) + predicament(s) + struggles(s).

7. Story patterns transmit, often tacitly, social rules and norms (e.g., what constitutes violation, or what reactions are expected/approved).

8. The “human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.” We can use logic inside stories better—consider Wason’s Test, ~10% solve it as a logic puzzle, but 70-90% do when it’s presented as a story, involving social-rule cheating.

9. Social-rule monitoring was evolutionarily crucial (“other people are the most important part of our environment”).

10. Social acceptance shaped ancestral survival. Violating social rules could mean exile or exclusion from group benefits (protection, big-game, etc).

11. Darwin saw how biologically active the stories in our social environments are—“Many a Hindoo…has been stirred to the bottom of his soul by [consuming] unclean food.” But if eaten unknowingly, it wouldn’t cause that reaction.

12. The story of the food, not the food itself, causes “soul shaking.” Story-causality triggers our emotional biology (our physiology can interact with stories like they’re real threats).

13. Stories configure the emotional/physiological triggers and reactions expected in our culture (patterns that are like an “emotional grammar”).

14. Any story we tell of our species, any science of human nature, that ignores how important stories are in shaping what and how we think and feel is false.

15. Nature shaped us to be ultra-social (and self-deficient). Hence to care deeply about character and plot. 

 

The author of these statements didn't source the claims made, however, based on what I know about human thinking and reasoning, I have to say that I found some of these claims to be true (or at least somewhat truthful), and/or plausible. Regardless, if these claims are true, how does this affect the role of religion in our culture and, accordingly, how does this knowledge change the role of the bible in Christianity in your life?

 

If, as humans, we are evolutionarily better at processing stories than doing logic, then it comes without saying that this may be the primary reason why religion is so prevalent in humanity. And if our reality is so strongly based in story telling, doesn't that give us cause to look and evaluate how much of our lives are influenced by stories, true or not? For me, if this is true (and I believe it is) then the bible fits that mold and this "fact" only weakens the power of the bible, and ultimately, Christianity.

 

Reading through this list, number 5 summed up Christianity for me: "5. Stories free us from the limits of direct experience, delivering feelings we don’t have to “pay for”". This "freedom" makes religion so powerful, because it removes the need to think and be logical, which, ironically is something we apparently aren't naturally good at as a whole in humanity.

 

I have a myriad of thoughts about this, but I was curious as to what you all thought about this.

 

[bornagainathiest]

This of any interest, Storm?

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-trace-society-rsquo-s-myths-to-primordial-origins/

 

It's only a preview, with the full article being unlocked on payment.

 

But I have this (Dec 2016) issue of SciAm to hand.

 

Pls lmk if you want to know more.

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

[Storm]

This of any interest, Storm?

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-trace-society-rsquo-s-myths-to-primordial-origins/

 

It's only a preview, with the full article being unlocked on payment.

 

But I have this (Dec 2016) issue of SciAm to hand.

 

Pls lmk if you want to know more.

 

Thanks,

 

BAA.

I would be willing to give it a read. No need to do anything special to allow me to read it though. I was primarily interested in other people's thoughts on the article in my OP though.