Mirror Mirror

The brain is a funny thing. It makes me laugh.

Some brain researchers think that mirror neurons hold the key to how we derive meaning from language. I will make the spectacularly speculative leap that they also hold the key to the origins of religion.

First let me explain what mirror neurons are.
When we see someone doing something, regions of our brain which are normally responsible for the doing become active despite the fact that we do not actually do what we see the other person doing. For example, if I see you smile, regions of my brain that control my ability to smile become active, even if I do not actually smile.
In language, what is said is reenacted by the mirror neurons. Talking about smiling causes regions of my brain that control my ability to smile to become active, even if I do not actually smile.
Apparently our ability to understand a sentence is affected by the compatibility of our emotional states with the emotional content of the sentence.

Next, let me make the leap from mirror neurons to our almost irresistible tendency for personification - "representing abstractions or inanimate objects with human qualities, including physical, emotional, and spiritual; the application of human attributes or abilities to nonhuman entities."

I contend that the attribution of sentient, humanizing traits to nature is a centrally human way of understanding the world because, as seems to be the case with language, it is the only way we can meaningfully understand the world. When we take away the personification, the sense of meaningfulness weakens... When choosing between a highly meaningful (personified) sense of meaning and a dry, de-humanized sense of meaning, I think it is safe to say that the personified meaning will have more appeal.

The only new idea here is the role that mirror neurons play in our understanding of the world. This additional de-humanizing, reductionistic bit of data, I think, adds new weight to an old argument.