Most of what we believe is grounded in mental tools that rapidly and intuitively generate beliefs about our environment.
Using experimental results in the relatively new field of cognitive psychology of religion, Justin Barrett argues convincingly that children are not uniformly gullible, but rather are biased towards religious belief. Influential figures like Richard Dawkins can give the impression that belief in God arises from a general childhood gullibility and indoctrination. Barrett, Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (AltaMira Press, 2004) Articles, Briefing Sheets & Book Reviews.This book will become a classic for religious studies, and should be read by anthropologists, theologians, and scientists, as well as all those puzzled by the force of religion. That it is natural does not imply that it is true, for the mental tools were elaborated through natural and cultural selection to help humans survive, not to find truth. Belief is intuitively satisfying because it depends on mental tools possessed by all human beings. In a beautifully argued presentation, Justin Barrett brings together diverse material from cognitive psychology to show that belief in God is natural. Pascal Boyer, Washington University in St. This should provide a much-needed guide for students and scholars of religion as well as a roadmap for future developments in the field. Barrett marries exceptional conceptual rigour with an easy, accessible style. It's the sort of book that shakes up the field all philosophers and psychologists of religion will have to take account of it.Ī brilliant and challenging presentation of the cognitive study of religion, by a psychologist who practically invented the field. His theory is innovative, compelling, and provocative at many points, not least in its conclusion that theism, not atheism, is our natural condition. Barrett's discussion challenges every explanation I know of, doing so on the basis of fascinating and innovative empirical studies, and acute philosophical analysis. For millennia, philosophers and others have offered explanations of religious belief.
0 kommentar(er)
