No one else caught this? Monkeys talking? Its a good story, but I'm still going to call bullshit on this one being real.
I'd read this study summary before. Didn't research it to see if it was true. The article I read didn't use the religion angle, just the monkey story.
If you let climbing the ladder symbolize ascendance/transcendence to a True Self, then it may be possible also to understand the behavior of atheists also. The realm of imagination is as mischievous as the scientist(s) in this experiment. Mind's have been conditioned to put others down (keeping them from transcending). No one knows why. It's because should a critical mass of minds reach the proverbial banana, it would doom the realm of imagination. No more monkeys. To the extent that monkey-hood is valued, imagination will continue to play these kinds of games, and will be assisted by minds in cooperation with it.
Generally speaking, what you consider to be natural and normal, such as stars and planets, are the result of something like an acid trip, except on a much larger scale, inside a much more powerful mind. So it could be said that everyone who thinks they are normal, are actually high and hallucinating. This includes atheists, deists and theists alike. Each values a DNA structure that's not too different from a monkey's. They all beat each each other down, should any, like myself, begin to ascend the ladder and make some assertions about what's at the top of the ladder. Your post is a good example of what the monkeys do, without really knowing why.
Generally it is the predisposition toward egotistical self-importance by which humans award themselves an assumed privileged and special place in the universe, leading to things like transcendence, and ladders, and religion.
Actually its the other way around. Egotistical self importance is what leads an otherwise humble, but very powerful being, down a ladder in the first place. You can see the effects of egotistical self importance everywhere in the monkey cage. For example, everyone is different, and wants to be different. This is the only way to be special, which is what egotistical self importance is all about. At the top of the ladder is equality, which involve humility. Don't think this is a typical religious viewpoint. Most of the theists that you argue with will also argue with me about what's at the top of the ladder, and like you, try to beat me up for making assertions about it.
Read the passage again. The face is doing the "asking." The facial expression, presumably one of surprise or some such. You read that the monkey spoke? Please tell us again how you want to pick numbers that hit the least if you want the best chance of winning the lotto. That story never gets old: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3488174&highlight=peilthetraveler#post3488174
So there's different ways of interpreting this scientific research. I'm not sure what the OP is saying exactly. But to me, the lesson seems clear enough: Minds (monkeys) have been trained (have learned) to think of what's normal, natural and good (the banana) as bad, insomuch as trying to reach it is bad, risky, or uncomfortable. Any mind trying to reach the good is seen as bad for the group. A (mad?) scientist has set this up as an experiment. Likewise, i'm saying that a kind of mad scientist (imagination) has set up an experiment that trains minds to reject the good and lofty, and to embrace the not good and lowly...even to the point of fighting for it. I interpret the ladder as that which leads from equality (the good) to inequality via a hierarchy. The ladder leads downward because it's not possible to go higher than the good, where equality prevails. Thus, to be different and/or special, the path must lead ever downwards, so as to ever distinguish oneself from what is higher/better. This is really the path of egotistical self-importance. Through training, minds learn to ascribe the good with the attributes of the bad (ie. egotistical self-importance) as a method of keeping them away from the good. Anyone going for the good (which would otherwise be a natural instinct) is beaten down with rhetoric that contradicts all that is good, and replaces it with a hierarchy of values. When a theist worships "god", he is most often valuing a hierarchical structure (the ladder), and is not really willing that he or anyone else reach the good at the top of the ladder (where there is equality). An atheist also values a hierarchical structure, preferring to see himself at the higher rungs of a ladder of species, or higher on an inter-specie ladder. Equality is equally as repugnant to the atheist as it is to the theist. Each have ways of beating each other down. Questioning one's psychological fitness is probably first and foremost among the ways of beating down anyone who goes outside the group-think. The group-think, by now, is generally backwards. What is at the top of the ladder of hierarchy (equality) is humble, but is called every sort of name to make it seem arrogant. When actually, its the other way around. Anyone who values hierarchy is among the arrogant hopefuls. Actually, valuing equality (climbing the ladder) IS bad for the group that values hierarchy, differences, and therefore self-importance (special status). We have stories about those among us who climb ladders (ie the corporate ladder) at the expense of everyone else. Climbing the ladder is seen as bad. But equality requires high self esteem. Hierarchy depends on low self-esteem. As a result, we don't like anybody who climbs the ladder for any reason whatsoever, to get on a higher rung, OR to reach the top (equality). So there is the catch-22. The minds at the bottom are stuck because of a backwards value system.