Forget religions and philosophies. They’ve been dancing around the question “What will make us happy” for thousands of years. Now we finally know. It’s oxytocin.
Here’s a link to a presentation by Paul Zak on TED.com. His research suggests the release of oxytocin in our brains is both the source of morality and happiness. Well, at least it appears to be an important part of its physiological cause:
So have Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Krishna, and the Buddha been made obsolete by a nasal inhaler primed with oxytonin? It appears to be the brain mechanism responsible for inducing empathy, trust, and morality. But guess what. How we think about other people as well as giving someone back rubs and hugs releases oxytocin. So why does he say that we don’t need to get morality from God because morality is “all inside of us?” That’s a little like saying that the beauty of a sunset is “all inside of us” because rods and cones in the back of our eyes send signals to our visual cortex. Just because there are chemicals in our brain that trigger the feeling of happiness, doesn’t mean there isn’t something outside of ourselves that initiates their release. There are plenty of arguments against the existence of God or gods, but this isn’t one of them. It does provide part of an explanation for morality that doesn’t depend on the existence of God or gods, but that’s not news. What is remarkable is the discovery of a specific chemical that can cause feelings that play such a fundamental role in our relationships with others.
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