Discussions on God often catch my interest... and this thread allowed me to evolve my ideas which I had refined through use of psilocybin.

"rfgdxm/Robert F. Golaszewski" wrote
> There is a book out there called "The God Part of the Brain" by Matthew
> Alper who examined the same idea I had considered years ago:
> http://www.godpart.com/. His basic premise as to why this developed
> through evolution is the same one that I hypothesized:
> "Essentially, what I'm suggesting is that humans are innately
> "hard-wired" to perceive a spiritual reality. We are "hard-wired"
> to believe in forces that transcend the limitations of this, our
> physical reality. Most controversial of all, if what I'm suggesting
> is true, it would imply that God is not necessarily something that
> exists "out there," beyond and independent of us, but rather as the
> product of an inherited perception, the manifestation of an
> evolutionary adaptation that exists within the human brain. And why
> would our species have evolved such a seemingly abstract trait? -In
> order to enable us to deal with our species' unique and otherwise
> debilitating awareness of death."

I believe that it is much more simple than that.

It is not something humans specifically evolved to deal with life and death. Life and death has always been a factor. It just that the higher we evolve, the longer we live, and the strong the concept of "self", as well as the stronger the opposition to inevitable death.

Connection to a "higher power" -- lets call this higher power "God" -- has been a part of life from the beginning.

No form of life on Earth exists without being driven by outside forces.

From the most minute forms of energy in the universe be they electrons, quarks or smaller particles still, they are all influenced by other, stronger forces.

Everything in life is built from smaller building blocks. These smaller parts are driven by the greater outside forces, which in turn means that the larger parts are driven (directly, and indirectly) by these outside forces.

Therefore, throughout all evolution, from a subatomic level right through to modern man, and also even planets, stars, solar systems and galaxies, everything in the universe is interconnected in some way, and driven by forces great and small.

This is all common knowledge.

The connection to, or awareness of some driving force would be hard to deny to even the lowest of lifeforms.

If you were able to ask a single celled organism, "what makes you go?" it would point to its internal organs... its smaller parts, and possibly also outside factors... light, movement, water currents, etc. If you asked those smaller parts what made them go, they would speak of the molecules that make them go... the proteins, the RNA, the DNA, etc. If you talked to the molecules, they would point to the atoms, and the atoms the electrons, etc, etc, and when you get to the smallest part, it would give you the important message -- that EVERYTHING is making it go.

For what makes an electron buzz around the nucleus of an atom? Attraction to the movement of surrounding atoms of course. What makes those atoms move around? Waves of radiation... electro-magnetic radiation mainly. From where? From stars... from planets, from a great many things.

So from the subatomic level up through to the highest levels, all life is driven by some "higher power" or "god" throughout evolution.

In early human (and possibly lower animals) history, humans believed there to be gods of all that had an influence on life... aspects of weather (wind, rain, snow, thunder) the sun, the moon, stars, arrangements of stars, water, earth (earthquakes, plants, animals) and fire.

Eventually we determined that these lesser gods must in turn be driven by a greater force... ultimately a single "God". The One. Here is where things become less clear, and a great many wars have been fought over which theory of "God" is correct.

The answer lies with that smallest particle... be it the electron or something smaller... the smallest particle would reply that "EVERYTHING" makes it go.

Therefore, God is the "Everything" the "All" ... the "One".

The combination of all matter and energy in the universe... interconnected as we are, and are all a part of.

This "logical" scientific view fits perfectly with the "spiritual" view of organized religions that "God is in everything and everyone", and "God is everywhere".

In conclusion, I think it it more likely that the concept of "God" is moreso something that we've forgotten rather than something which we evolved.

Our "advanced" brain allows us both the arrogance to not believe in (or misconstrue) God, as well as the potential to become enlightened enough to realize the truth about God (as much as humanly possible). This goes hand in hand with the "free will" that "God has graced us with" in organized religions.

On a final note... there may be a little truth in the idea of man creating God -- for it is mankind that has defined and created all modern concepts and manifestations of God. Also, since it is up to man to find God, it is left up to man to define his own personal version of God. It is difficult to do much else as a mortal, and impossible to do without giving up one's sense of self.

One's connection with God is from within. No matter where in the Universe you travel, you are not going to find God unless you look within yourself.