Why religious 'logos' is plummeting?

The fundamental biological built of human body is purposed for only for two objectives– survival and reproduction. Our body’s functions, anatomy and the tools we use to comprehend reality (5 sense organs) have a predestined biological purpose which is to ensure survival and procreation. Hence, every aspect of our body which we currently decipher is genetically constructed to keep us alive and further our species. But a rudimentary wedge between human beings and other organisms is that we decipher reality using our brain which is capacious of collating information from our surroundings and make us efficient in the two aforementioned purposes. Here, our intellectual capacity is superior to that of other organisms because we are able to ruminate and come up with quick solutions keeping in mind the various variables we gather from around us. We are able to solve ‘problems’ radically better than any other species. It is imperative to note because our brains and psychological make-up is weaved in a manner which is also – like other biological tools, necessary for only two purposes. This is the premise I want to establish before delving into the ‘religion’ discussion.

When humans were primates, our brains’ function wasn’t much distinct from other species- gather food, protect the tribe, reproduce, maintain a hierarchy and move-up in it etc. We were just more efficient in achieving that purpose contrasted to other animals. Our brain today, is built up on that foundation only. We might marvel upon the advancement of the civilisation but, on a fundamental scale our brains aren’t much different hence, most of our desires elicit from only two purposes – survival and reproduction. It also has an aspect of climbing up in the hierarchical ladder however that again stems from a survival purview. So, this was the purpose of our ancestors during primeval life.
It can be stretched further to the fact that the design of human brain is intrinsically to ‘solve problems’. There were many problems which are ancestors used to face to mere survive. Hence, they did not have the time to think deeply over a particular issue. It is just axiomatic that brain is naturally designed to be reactionary and not to cogitate deeply. Whenever we see, let’s say a snake our instincts in a algorithmic fashion get employed to distance us from the potential threat. It doesn’t take much time to execute the task. Our brains didn’t require deep research of snake’s species, venom structure etc. It was just reflex action. These quick decisions were necessary to survive, hence the brain wasn’t built to take heavy cognitive load before reaching a particular solution to a problem.

The religious perspective solved almost every cognitive problem for humans. It provided a unified theory postulating explanation of all phenomenon in the universe. Here, the theory might vary from religion-to-religion but all the patterns of human life – need for identity, explanation of nature’s processes, motivation, organisation of society in a hierarchy etc. were achieved. Hence, our brains were spared of existentialism and accepted these explanations to escape from daunting process of objectively explaining every single aspect of human perception. It is my perspective that religious theories resonated well with human psyche and our ancestors outsourced the cognitive load of explaining the universe to an inherited logos from their ancestors and the surrounding society. It glued the society together, provided meaning to the life and in a way explained everything which was necessary to take quick decisions in an agriculture society.

Fast forward to today, the survival need for human brains remain fulfilled. We have developed smart economic systems, social hierarchies based on democratic norms and everything to optimise the survival requirement of humans. Hence, our brains have been left with ‘nothing much to do’ which basically leaves time to intellectually comprehend the world. It is the reason for the precipitation in religious ‘logos’ since we don’t need to believe in a God to survive, hence we can explore other theories. Therefore, other aspects of religion such as identity, connection to history, meaning in life are although important, but the theory that God or ‘karma’ controls everything is being increasingly unpopular. We have time to think deeply over any aspect within human perception hence, we don’t need to outsource this cognitive load and concede to a religious explanation of the process. And we all can agree that "Money is the new God".