I think it's pretty clear from this thread and others that 3017 has posted to that 3017 simply is not interested in any sort of reasonable exchange. What do you say? — tim wood
1. Can the nature of the curious mind be explained throughout history relative to sociology (norms, beliefs, rituals, practices)? — 3017amen
2. Does curiosity in itself confer any biological advantages? — 3017amen
3. Can Religion offer any pathway to understanding the nature of reality and the phenomena of the experiences associated with self-awareness/consciousness? — 3017amen
4. Can cognitive science study the Religious experience in order to gain insight on the phenomenon of the conscious mind (what is self-awareness)? — 3017amen
The exact impetus to the evolution of the curious mind as you put seems difficult to pinpoint but if I were to hazard a guess, confining myself to homo sapiens, we have language, we imitate, we reason fairly well and these abilities, if they are abilities, make curiosity communicable and transmissible, also providing it with context. — TheMadFool
As I mentioned earlier and it must be getting tedious for you, curiosity is, in a sense, the difference between a full belly and an empty one. However, if an animal acts on its curiosity, attempts to answer the question, say, "can this be eaten?" — TheMadFool
3. Can Religion offer any pathway to understanding the nature of reality and the phenomena of the experiences associated with self-awareness/consciousness? — 3017amen
There seems to be an intriguing paradox lurking beneath the trio of social existence, religion, and science as the poster-child of curiosity. As I said earlier, human social existence is the current-best setting for the curious mind to reach stratospheric heights. Compare that to religion - essentially moral in nature, consolidating the bond between individuals and thus the cohesive force that maintains society's integrity - and how it, in its own way, stifles curiosity. Religion, as the late Christopher Hitchens said, is forced down our throats as some kind of final solution, the answer to answer all questions, it is the ultimate truth. Go down that road and you'll come to a grave, buried in it the curious mind.
The paradox is that though society is the best available soil as it were for the flower of curiosity to grow, one existing force that keeps people together in harmonious union (religion) is dead against curiosity.
To answer your question, religion isn't really a search for truth — TheMadFool
. Can cognitive science study the Religious experience in order to gain insight on the phenomenon of the conscious mind (what is self-awareness)? — 3017amen
This seems a promising line of inquiry. I second the motion. — TheMadFool
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