Since Darwin’s theory of evolution, it has been widely accepted that we are descended from animals, and that we were animals before we were humans. Although this theory cannot be definitively proven, it is the most logical and therefore the most probable option, especially when considering the biblical narrative of Genesis.
Regardless of one’s beliefs on the matter, certain characteristics of human functioning are very similar to those of animals, as research in biology and neuroscience has shown. Deep within us, we have an animal nature.
If we accept this point of view, we can ask ourselves the question of faith in animals. In humans, faith — or certain confidence — has different definitions depending on the field of application: religion, philosophy, or law. It is based on truths that belong to the domain of reason, emotion, or aesthetics. This is the human side of faith. But what about animals?
The Evolution from Animals to Humans Regarding Faith and Belief
Looking at wild animals, who belong to nature, having faith is the absence of doubt. It is “a feeling of primal emotion” that drives the beast to get up in the morning, to seek food, to fight to the end. It is the will to live and win, which gradually disappears in human depression. In nature, a depressed animal is a dead animal!
The difference with animals is that for us faith is the vital feeling of primal emotion that needs to be expressed through belief in narratives. The purpose of these narratives is to provide an explanation for the world we live in, to answer our need for spirituality, and to quiet our fears. Since the Enlightenment, the scientific narrative has competed with the religious and philosophical ones. It relies more on reason, less on emotion, and has allowed the birth of modern societies.
However, it does not replace the need to believe. We therefore observe a mix of belief and science even in the greatest scientists. Albert Einstein could not accept evidence for the quantum theory because of its religious view of the world. His need to understand the world was impeded by his belief in a wrong narrative.
The Hard Work for Being Human
But what is the difference between understanding and believing? Believing is accepting something as true while understanding is comprehending the meaning of something. Could we say that believing is shallow and understanding is more profound? The easy way of the former compared to the hard way of the latter.
I remember the high school practical experiments in physics and biology to understand and make up our own minds, instead of just accepting any “truth” that an “authority” would impose on us. It is called critical thinking or Cartesian doubt, and it needs education and values like hard work. It’s not automatic. This is what differentiates us from animals.
It therefore appears that there are different levels of depth in human reasoning: emotional automatic belief, philosophy (with the Socratic method), Cartesian doubt, and then modern scientific reasoning. We can see it as an evolution of human thought, a progress, as shown by what science has brought to humanity. That being said, we should not see here a scale of the value of men between their different methods of reasoning, only an asset for understanding the world and thus for the search for freedom. However, religions whose primary purpose was to elevate men above animals, have become nothing more than organizations of power and enslavement.
Modernity and the Loss of Faith
Since the advent of modern democracies, we have observed a loss of religious faith: the desacralization of the world. This goes hand in hand with the epidemic of depression. Are the two linked? On the one hand, we have a change in the way we think: from emotional and automatic animal thinking to incessant intellectual human wandering. And on the other hand, a change in the general health of the population, as seen especially in resistance to effort and flexibility of the body.
Yes, I believe that the two are linked: desacralization of the world and the epidemic of depression. But not because modern societies have killed God. But because we have lost our animal faith at the same time as the automatic and simplistic thinking that led us to believe, without thinking about what we believe, without doubting for a single moment. This does not mean that religious people are stupid, but that education makes a real difference in understanding the world. Like many other things, the difference between winner and losers is most of the time: the method. In our case the scientific one. Religions, whose primary purpose was to elevate men above animals, have become nothing more than organizations of power and enslavement, forgetting their initial goal.
The crux of the matter is our body
We need to recover our animal faith, without ever renouncing our modernity. How is this possible? From my point of view, it is the maintaining of a healthy body. This body that religions have dumped because it is our animal side and our freedom. This body where faith and emotions reside. A healthy body is one that can keep animal faith while resisting emotional turmoils of modern active life.
But concretely, what is a healthy body? Is it enough to eat well to be in shape? Is it enough to take X thousand steps every day, regardless of the method or the state of mind in which we do it? How do yoga classes improve health? For me, these simple and generic solutions are just stopgaps to maintain our health. But the idea is there!
It is the recognition of our animality that will allow us to affirm our humanity.
Indeed, to get and maintain a healthy body the method is essential. Yes, eating well is mandatory because most sickness starts from the guts. But we just discovered the microbiome and we now understand that we know very little on the subject. Yes, walking is good for health. But walking using wrong neuromuscular patterns, with shoes like clogs impeding the right ones is not great. And yes, yoga classes help improve health. But yoga is an old practice not really adapted to adults and modern life. Because of all of that, I developed a new yoga based on neuroscience and tensegrity of the human body: Tensigral Patterns Yoga. It allowed me to recover from burnout and to regain most of my abilities of my 30.
Final Words
To conclude on faith and belief, I would like to say that to reclaim our humanity we must rediscover faith through our body, and we must stop believing without thinking. Evolution has provided us with fantastic hardware inherited from our animal ancestors. Yet, it’s up to us to conceive the software that will help us to reach full humanity and perhaps Enlightenment. This is a disruptive perspective, and fortunately we have all the necessary tools in our modern democracies to pursue it. All we need is education and hard work to enable our free will through a strong and flexible body.