Caveman Logic

Caveman logic constantly pervades our lives. Humanity believes in anything from supposed coincidences to spiritual healing without a second thought. The logic that our ancestors used has tainted our ways of thinking, and has taken us farther from evolutionary progress. We cannot exclude ourselves from being susceptible to this flawed system of thinking due to its overwhelming presence in today’s world. Caveman logic is not something that I am exempt from, having turned to it for a large portion of my life. Attending both a Roman Catholic elementary and middle school taught me more about God and less about the world around me. Science was not taught as much as it should have been, and evolution was never mentioned in any of the curriculums. I would learn stories about the creation of the Earth in elementary school, then I would visit museums and books that stated the complete opposite. It was difficult to comprehend at such a young age, so I decided to follow my peers and believe that a widely believed in deity had the answers to everything. It …show more content…
It is a prevalent part of many people’s lives. Hank Davis (2009) states that religion “…is, in a sense, a parasite” (p. 236). Like any parasite, religion is one that feeds on the weakest links of its host. In humanity’s case, the weakest links are parts of the brain that are prone to mundanity (Atran & Norenzayan, 2004). Religion has had its hold in society for so long that it is difficult for us to let go of it. It is a parasite that has remained constant while humanity evolved. Though it serves no evolutionary purpose, we still keep religion central to our daily practices. Ancient peoples needed to explain why strange events occurred, or why people and animals close to them suffered. Placing their pleas and hopes in something they believed to be omnipotent and omniscient helped them to cope with the problems they faced in everyday