The Physiology of Faith by N. Fakhr - HTML preview

Inducing Artificial Emotions

We are walking along when suddenly we see a large venomous snake directly in our path. The physiological signs of fear immediately appear: our heart rate rises and our breathing becomes faster.

A mother is told that her child has been in an accident. She cannot control her terror and grief. No matter how much she is told that she needs to remain calm so that she can make the right decisions, her emotions are beyond her control. The physiological signs of fear and distress appear throughout her body.

Someone is told that his business partner has taken his property. The physiological signs of anger appear. No matter how much he is told that material possessions are not worth getting upset over, he cannot simply control his anger.

As we discussed earlier, the nerve fibers carrying information from our senses into the brain first pass through lower brain structures, including the brainstem and limbic system. Before this information is consciously analyzed, it is processed and interpreted by brain regions involved in emotion. Meaning is assigned to what has been perceived, and this interpretation may trigger an appropriate emotional response.

Anything interpreted as a threat to our lives, to the lives of those we care about, or to our interests and the normal course of our lives can trigger the corresponding emotions. We have relatively little control over their initial appearance. We may simply become aware that our emotional state has changed, while many of the reactions accompanying that change occur beyond our voluntary control. [1]

Someone whose favorite team scores a goal cannot simply choose not to feel happy, and many of the accompanying reactions are equally involuntary.

When a cleric sees the sacred beliefs of his religion being criticized, the central and lower regions of his brain may quickly interpret the criticism as a threat to his occupation, interests, or social standing. He may therefore genuinely experience anger or fear. Many ordinary believers, however, may perceive no such threat. Their brains may detect no danger to their lives or interests as a result of criticism of their religion, and consequently no spontaneous anger or fear may arise. A cleric, however, may tell them that their sacred beliefs have been insulted, that they must display religious zeal and become angry, and that failure to do so shows that they are not true believers and may incur God’s displeasure and punishment.

In such a case, there was initially no spontaneous physiological anger. Had such anger already existed, there would have been no need to provoke it; indeed, even if the cleric had wanted to suppress it, doing so might not have been easy. Genuine anger, pain, grief, love, and fear do not need to be prescribed or repeatedly reminded to us, because such emotions can arise automatically through unconscious processes after we witness a relevant event or receive relevant news.

An emotion that arises in response to the demand or prompting of a cleric, by contrast, may be regarded as an induced or artificial emotion, and the person who induces it may also have considerable influence over when and how it is expressed. Once emotions have been induced, the appropriate response to those emotions must also be taught. For example, the death of someone hundreds of years ago cannot ordinarily affect the present-day life or interests of an ordinary believer in a way that automatically produces grief. Yet believers may be told that they should grieve on the anniversary of that person’s death. They are then instructed about the ceremonies and rituals through which this grief should be expressed, the actions they should perform, and the activities they should avoid. Similarly, they may be told that they should rejoice on the anniversary of the birth of someone who lived centuries ago, and that failure to feel or display such happiness indicates deficient faith. They are then taught how that happiness should be expressed.

For example, Shi'a clerics may tell believers that each year, on the anniversary of the death of the Eleventh Imam, they should remain in mourning until sunset. They may later change this practice and say that mourning should continue only until noon, while after noon believers should rejoice because it marks the anniversary of the Twelfth Imam’s accession to the Imamate. They determine what should be avoided during the period of mourning and what should be done during the period of celebration.

There was a time when Christian clergy encouraged believers to display anger toward anyone who expressed doubts about the faith, and people responded accordingly, sometimes even participating in the burning of those regarded as unbelievers. Today, in those same societies, Christian believers are generally not encouraged to respond with anger even to caricatures of Jesus Christ, and such expressions are to a considerable extent tolerated.

The ability of clerics to teach emotions to believers and then mobilize them on the basis of those emotions gives them considerable power. Their critics are often aware of this power. A critical writer, for example—like me—may feel compelled to publish under a pseudonym. The same capacity can also lead political rulers—even where clerics themselves do not control the government—to take clerical influence seriously, avoid confrontation with religious authorities, and perhaps allow their voices to remain the dominant ones heard by believers.

The ability to cultivate artificial or induced emotions, of course, is not unique to religious authorities. Some politicians, media organizations, and intellectuals can exercise the same skill.