dangerous option. So fear is not just what we experience about it; it
is also a program, in some ways comparable to a computer program.
It governs the resources of the brain in a special way, quite different
from what happens in other circumstances. Fear increases the sensi-
tivity of some perceptual mechanisms and leads reasoning through
complicated sets of possible outcomes. So Dr. Johnson was right
after all.^7[22] PROGRESS BOX 2:
EMOTION IN RELIGION- Religious concepts do not always provide
reassurance or comfort. - Deliverance from mortality is not quite the
universal longing we often assume. - Religious concepts are indeed connected to
human emotional systems, which are connected to
life-threatening circumstances. - A different angle: Our emotional programs
are an aspect of our evolutionary heritage, which
may explain how they affect religious concepts.
This leads to other important questions: Why do we have such
programs, and why do they work in this way? In the case of fear trig-
gered by predators, it seems quite clear that natural selection designed
our brains in such a way that they comprise this specific program. We
would not be around if we did not have fairly efficient predator-avoid-
ance mechanisms. But this also suggests that the mental programs are
sensitive to the relevant context. You do not survive long if your brain
fails to start this program when wolves surround you, or if you activate
it every time you run into a sheep. Mortality anxiety may not be asRELIGION EXPLAINED