Cognitive systems that underpin religious belief:
"Thus religion can be described in terms of cognitive processes that are common to all human brains, part and parcel of how a normal mind functions."
"The intuitive psychology system treats ancestors (or God) as intentional agents,
- the exchange system treats them as exchange partners,
- the moral system treats them as potential witnesses to moral action
- the person-file system treats them as distinct individuals
"Religious concepts invariably recruit the resources of mental systems that would be there, religion or no. This is why religion is a likely thing. That is, given our minds' evolved dispositions, the way we live in groups, the way we communicate with other people and the way we produce inferences, it is very likely that we will find in any human group some religious representations whose surface details are specific to a particular group."
[in: Pascal Boyer: "Religion Explained. The evolutionary origins of religious thought" ) - -
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.It was curious how different tribes used different animals as their totems. It said something about the clan. I can't help but see the same idea in medieval coats of arms. Today, many companies use these icons and presumably they mean something to the founders (I'm thinking of Peugeot's lion emblem). Perhaps this can be viewed as the gradual loss of real meaning from totem to symbol to icon.
brentan
Level 8
June 18, 2019
0
I agree religion is a likely thing to which we are disposed, although my framing for the reasons is different. The wrongful inference of agency is indeed normal, or at least typical, because we evolved that way for a now-defunct hunter-gatherer environment dominated by ignorance of natural processes.
The question is, do we embrace and encourage and develop this because it's common and unremarkable and had been influential in culture, or do we raise our level of self awareness around it and have the temerity to question its utility in various contexts?
mordant
Level 8
June 17, 2019
0
@Matias There are of course still "small scale" societies but they are no longer the only game in town and certainly not the dominant one and certainly not the kind we are living in, which is the situation at hand for us.
I never said such societies are based on ignorance but they were largely ignorant of what you term "know why", which leads to fear and loathing of not knowing why and making up narratives so as to feel less not in control. Sure, you or I would not have the hard skills to survive without technology, in the same way they would lack the hard skills to survive WITH it. That's a separate question. My point is that the abstractions that get, say, a hunter-gatherer through his day are not, for most people, the best ones to get us through ours.
What you state as almost inevitable belief is not inevitable. It requires the prior belief that ancestors still exist as living spirits today, and that they can and do influence today's events. Those thought and faulty cognitive structures which ensue from those assumptions are NOT inevitable in human beings. Hundreds of millions of people living today have no such false assumptions and no such subsequent erroneous cognitive structures.
wordywalt
Level 9
June 17, 2019
0
I hear stories almost every day from people that have experienced a Jesus miracle. Jesus got me to stop drinking, God helped me get a new car, God saved my life in the auto accident. These things are always happening to someone else. A friend told me today that a predictor said that trump would be the last USA president (implying the end of the world is near). He said Jesus would return to Jeruslahem from the sky after the nuclear war. I told him that would be then end of our children and our grandchildren. He replied that it was OK because we would all be in heaven. I told him that the best thing for Christianity would be for the faith to drop the book of Revelation along with the Old testament. Religion is the opium of the masses (Karl Marx).
Grecio
Level 7
June 17, 2019
0
But the same applies to ghosts, aliens, monsters, and fictional characters. That's just how our brain works. When we imagine another person (real, unreal, or potentially real)...we are imagining distinct individuals with points of view and moral stances and emotions, etc.
greyeyed123
Level 7
June 17, 2019
1
The idea that our ancestors might be alive and willful and that they might be expressing themselves through me—that I am them—now that is an intriguing thought. Am I wrong to read such a thing into this quote?
I am a we. We thank you for this quote Matias.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
June 17, 2019
0
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