3:42:10 no matter what the thoughts are, people can change to deal with the condition. So I see these two sides battling in a weird way. So let's get back to genes three. They help us to maintain ourselves and they help us to transcend ourselves. How? Well, religion, of course, there are a lot of different arguments as to how religion may have an adaptive advantage to us. Some people point to the social cohesiveness that occurs among people who are of a particular religion. So you have a religious group. There are other factors in social cohesion as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. But this happens to be a very, people find that if there's a central ideological structure that people can adhere to, that that becomes a very important way that people can bond.
3:42:52 And of course, if we do go back into time, we find that temples and various religious ideas and concepts exist all the way back in the earliest parts of civilization. So it may have had a very important role, not the only one, but an important role in helping us with social cohesiveness. A lot of people argue that religion helps us to provide a sense of morals for us. And there are those who think that morals may be unrelated to religion, but nonetheless, these are just some of the arguments that people have made. People also have talked about religion as helping us to cope with an environment which is notoriously difficult to deal with. Obviously, we've done a lot better in the last century than we did 2,000 years ago.
3:43:32 Exactly. But, you know, look at the miners in Chile. I mean, their religion became very important for helping them to stay calm, for helping them to deal with the very problematic situation that they were dealing with. And it helped many of them get through that whole situation. So people often argue that religion has a benefit from that perspective. Oh, yeah, I think that's totally true. I mean, people who drop to their knees or pray or pray in time of deep crisis, it totally affects them. And if anything, they're usually calmer. And let's take it away from religion for a second into something that's more widespread in society, yoga. Yes. Now you can sit here and stretch. Like, oh, let me stretch the glutes and the hammies. You know what I'm saying?
3:44:16 And it has a different effect than when you do yoga, when you're actually centering yourself. So I just want to point that out in a more social acceptable way that it's the combining of the body and the mind, right? I mean, because you could sit here and do all kinds of stretches, but your mind is somewhere else. You're not going to get the benefits that tons of people have said they got from yoga. If you talk to people that do yoga, they're like, wow, man, it just changed my life. I mean, you could hear people say it like, man, it was life-changing. So I just want to give that example of it's not just the activity, it's the tying of the mind and the, and, and the brain and the mind and the body.
3:44:57 Yeah, you're anchoring, you're anchoring things. But another point I want to point out in this clip now, which I found that comes full circle with what we discuss here, is social cohesion. Yeah. If you're keeping people out of church or whatever their belief house is, the mosque or whatever your belief, you know, maybe it's just brunch on Sundays. You know, that maybe that's your, you know, your, what you look forward to to get together with people and fellowship, right? No matter how you fellowship. If you isolate people, it's a double whammy, right? Because like now it's, you don't have this social cohesion and it's love. I mean, that's what, I mean, when they say social cohesion, I think that's what they mean by going into community.
3:45:39 Yeah. And the, and the actual physical closeness, which is an important part of vibrations and the communal prayer or worship or whatever you want to call it. Sports. I mean, sports. Let's just say you nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it. Exactly. You nailed it right there. Nailed it. People love to go and fellowship and tell gay and it makes their week. It's just like if I can just get to the game on Sunday, whether it's you're sitting down with your family and friends, watching on television. And I think that's why sports has lost its magic because you don't have that social cohesion. cohesion, which they're denying that it's like they're holding it ransom.
3:46:18 It's like, take this or you don't get to participate in that. And I think this is where people are drawing the line. Are you hooked yet? I've been hooked as 61 episodes. All right, genes for. In many different ways. We need to understand how that happens. We need to understand why that happens. Are there certain people that that's more likely to happen in? Or are there, you know, a lot of evidence points to the fact that we can make anybody into a pretty immoral, horrible person by putting them in an environment that doesn't allow them to really become a more normal person.
3:46:55 I mean, you can take somebody and brainwash them and do different kinds of rituals with them so that they're going to fly a plane into a building just like just like somebody who is a devout religious person. Whoa. So what we know, though, is that the more we focus on those negative ideas and the more we focus on the hatred and the contempt for other individuals and the more that's built into the rituals, the more powerful that becomes for that individual. And that's why rituals are really a morally neutral technology. They can be used for immense good or they can be used for immense bad. It's also that the structures of religion can be used to lead people along moral pathways. They can also be used to control elements of society and indeed to help the state to rally around the cause of war.
3:47:42 Absolutely. And again, sometimes that can be good. I mean, I always have in mind, you know, if I had to send out an army to defend my freedom, would I want an army that was very religious and felt that God was behind them? Or would I want an army of atheists who were questioning everything every step of the way? I'd probably go with the former. But I think the important thing is that, yes, it can be used for great good and it can be used for great bad. And this is why people, I believe, don't rally around science when they come, when you compare them to believers, whatever the belief is, because science has to be proven. That's why they're making science into a religion.
3:48:23 Because it's like, if you're just saying it's a scientific method, it's like if it works, it works, it doesn't. But when you tie emotion behind it, and that's why I think religions and rituals, it's not positive or negative. It's a force multiplier. So like a lot of times, if you can say we can turn religion into a science, you can get that force multiplier. That's why you see people just going out of their minds over science. And it's like, how don't you believe? How don't you believe? It's like, I have my own set of rituals and beliefs. So it conflicts with that. Well, except for climate science, I think that's been successfully manipulated so that most people will
3:49:07 hear the term climate science and will think, oh, yeah. And they believe that. That's why I love doing this show with you because you just inspired a thought. What is the similarity just to say with the known religions that we have and global warming? What's the similarity it has? I know I'll put you on the spot, but I'll take it. I'll go for it. The world coming to an end. Oh, yes, of course. The Armageddon, the... Yes, if we don't do this, if we don't act this way, the world's going to come to an end. And it's always a good one. It's been used throughout history, but yeah, it's still effective.
3:49:47 But never in a way has science been looked at that way, right? I mean, it's just like the nuclear bomb or whatever else. It's like whatever. But now we're saying, if you don't adhere to these rituals of recycling, of getting rid of plastic straws, of you know what I'm saying, of carbon tax or whatever else, the world's going to come to an end. So now you have these two forces and tithe. You must tithe. He must tithe. Exactly. Bingo, boom. You can't poo-poo the people's belief in science either because these people who actually believe the world's coming in eight years and you have believers think this world's coming to an end and they're on this game of chicken