The Arabian Plate

[Clivedurdle]

Look at a map of the plates of the earth - note there is a small one under an area that is the home of a significant number of the world's religions.

Has anyone asked if there is a correlation?

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/handbooks/arabianpages/arabianintro.htm

[Incoherent fool]

Um, why would there be a correlation?

[DNAReplicator]

Has anyone asked if there is a correlation?

Apart from you, I suspect not.

Well, it is a bit of a silly idea really.

[Clivedurdle]

As we sit in his office, Persinger argues that other environmental disturbances - ranging from solar flares and meteor showers to oil drilling - probably correlate with visionary claims, including mass religious conversions, ghost lights, and haunted houses. He says that if a region routinely experiences mild earthquakes or other causes of change in the electromagnetic fields, this may explain why the spot becomes known as sacred ground. That would include the Hopi tribe's hallowed lands, Delphi, Mount Fuji, the Black Hills, Lourdes, and the peaks of the Andes, not to mention most of California.

It is a few years since the Wired article, anyone done any more work on this?

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger_pr.html

[modernPrimitive]

perhaps religious phenomenon are the cause of all such environmental disturbances.

[Musing Man]

perhaps religious phenomenon are the cause of all such environmental disturbances.

Hehe, good point!
If the OP premise really was the case, Japan should have been one of the most religious countries on Earth. It's rather pretty much the exact opposite.
So, no.

[peanutaxis]

perhaps religious phenomenon are the cause of all such environmental disturbances.

And an apt username to boot!:)

[grendelfreak]

Is it really the home of most of the world's religions, or just what is the most popular, due to it being the crossroads for the old world?

[Hydra009]

Is it really the home of most of the world's religions,Not really, Eastern religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, and innumerable pagan religions all across the entire world (Celts, Norse, Aztecs, etc) didn't originate anywhere near the Arabian Plate.

But Christianity and Islam were the religions that really spread rapidly throughout the world, displacing native religious beliefs. Hence the Middle East's appearance of the source of religion.

or just what is the most popular, due to it being the crossroads for the old world?That's my theory. Plus, some of the world's oldest civilizations got their start in the Fertile Crescent, making it an important cultural center for much of the world, in addition to trade, so there were plenty of chances for an exchange of ideas.

[Craig]

Hehe, good point!
If the OP premise really was the case, Japan should have been one of the most religious countries on Earth. It's rather pretty much the exact opposite.
So, no.


Isn't that just a recent development though?

It is an interesting idea- geology as a motivator to finding an explanation for things (why does the ground move, is god angry?).

[aegis]

Look at a map of the plates of the earth - note there is a small one under an area that is the home of a significant number of the world's religions.

Has anyone asked if there is a correlation?

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/handbooks/arabianpages/arabianintro.htm

I remember learning that that area was where agriculture was first developed, and where some of the first (if not the very first) city states were built.

[Octavia]

Hehe, good point!
If the OP premise really was the case, Japan should have been one of the most religious countries on Earth. It's rather pretty much the exact opposite.
So, no.

New Zealand's pretty much one big fault line, and we count nearly 40% as not being religious.

There doesn't seem to be a correlation here.

[Clivedurdle]

Hehe, good point!
If the OP premise really was the case, Japan should have been one of the most religious countries on Earth. It's rather pretty much the exact opposite.
So, no.

I thought Japan was very religious.

[Astreja]

New Zealand and Japan are islands, and IMO somewhat less susceptible to things like culture-vs.-culture warfare.

Perhaps the geological volatility of the Middle East has caused various tribes to run around more than is usual, which would cause them to clash more with rival cultures. The religiousness of the region may be nothing more than hyper-tribalism.

[Clivedurdle]

Isn't that just a recent development though?

It is an interesting idea- geology as a motivator to finding an explanation for things (why does the ground move, is god angry?).

I am arguing for something on the lines of Persinger - earthquakes cause changes to brain states.

[Starshark]

I am arguing for something on the lines of Persinger - earthquakes cause changes to brain states.

By what mechanism exactly?

[Sarpedon]

Fear?

[Hydra009]

But just about any form of natural disaster - from hurricanes to flooding to drought to volcanic eruption - could potentionally serve as a stimulus to the idea that changes in the weather are due to emotional changes in one's God. And it would hardly be just the people on the Arabian plate experiencing such harsh weather.

[Clivedurdle]

By what mechanism exactly?

Persinger did write more about this, but it is something that would be very difficult to show.

It is not specific earthquakes or events but living in areas for generations subject to low level electro-magnetic phenomena may lead to people more likely to have temporal lobe epilepsy, become religious, have visions, breed more people. It may have allowed some of them to invent agriculture as well.

I would also look at schizophrenia and the religious types now thought to be a low level schizophrenia. Slow co-evolution with this as another factor.

How would you go about testing this? (Are mobile phone users becoming more religious?)

[premjan]

I have noticed that living in areas devoid of natural vegetation makes one more irritable.