Recent statistics show a precipitous decline in religious observance in the United States.1 So what happens to a society that gradually abandons its previously entrenched religious beliefs and becomes secular? This trend is spreading widely in Europe and North America. But widely held beliefs with powerful personal meaning don’t just fizzle away: they re-emerge in another form. The substantial energy of religious faith must be invested elsewhere and manifested in an alternative form with similar dynamics.
Enter politics!
It seems that humans’ need to uphold a strong belief is so powerful that they either incorporate political doctrines side-by-side with their religious beliefs (if the 2 are compatible) or adopt a strong political belief if they abandon their religion and become secular. This does not have to be an intellectually wrenching change because there are many similarities between hyper-religiosity and fanatic political beliefs (Table).
The toxic hyperpartisanship that has dominated the United States over the past several years may be the culmination of an intensified “religification” of politics. The incendiary mix of religious zealotry and political fanaticism is conducive to intensified loathing, hostility, and animus to those with an opposing political ideology.
So it all boils down to the human imperative of harboring a strong personal belief. What is the origin of beliefs, religious, political, or otherwise? Why does the human species have the overwhelming need to uphold a belief? Research suggests that it is the result of evolution and the phylogenetic enlargement of the brain, including the parietal and medial frontal cortex in humans.2 And according to many studies, abnormal and delusional beliefs encountered in psychiatric practice appear to be caused by altered perception and/or misattribution of aversive meaning.3 Lesions in the right hemisphere have been reported to play an important role in generating delusional beliefs.4 A healthy right hemisphere plays an important role in:
- pragmatic communications
- perceptual integration
- attentional surveillance and anomaly novelty detection
- belief updating.4
Right hemispheric pathology disrupts those functions and can lead to false beliefs such as delusions, or, on a milder scale, strongly held superstitions.
One wonders how the structure and function of the right hemisphere generates and perpetuates a belief in a religion or political ideology that ultimately shapes one’s life. Religiosity and politics are an inherent part of human nature, and they can replace each other or merge together. If one is to believe what Durkheim5 proposed more than a century ago, the existence of belief systems is essential for societal stability. He posited that the absence of stable belief systems can lead to what he labeled “anomie,” leading to a surge of suicide and crime. If that is true, then the coexistence of religious and political beliefs may have a significant upside, but also with a palpable downside when either or both of those belief systems become excessively antagonistic or extreme. Three cheers for religious and political moderation that allows them to peacefully coexist.