Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't Jason Slone

Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't

Jason Slone

Last annotated on Thursday September 21, 2017

124 Highlight(s) | 98 Note(s)

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CHAPTER
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"If you ask two people of the same religion one question, you'll get three answers."
Note:UNA DOMANDA DUE ROSPOSTE

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people invent their own versions of religion

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why are there so many different, competing, contradictory versions of it, even within one single religion?
Note:PERCHÈ TANTE VERSIONI

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the generation and transformation of religious representations by individuals is not always harmless. Consider religious violence.
Note:VIOLENZA

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how could these particular individuals twist their religion's teachings to such horrific ends?
Note:TERROROSTI

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religious behavior is constrained by the cognitive mechanisms involved in everyday nonreligious behavior.
Note:UTILITÀ DELLA RELIGIONE

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Abductive reasoning involves constructing general principles as explanations for particular events, such that if the principles are true, the event or phenomenon in question is explained.
Note:ABDUZIONE.... RAZIONALIZZAZIONE... LA VIA DI MOLTI

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abductive reasoning is efficient-it does the most work with the least effort in the shortest time. It explains everything that needs to be explained at the moment
Note:PERCHÈ ABDUCTIVE?

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The Early Scientific Study of Religion
Note:ttttttttt

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using science to study religion isnot uncontroversial
Note:CAMPI DIVERSI?

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Science is descriptive-it

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Religion, on the other hand, is prescriptive-it

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Religion deals with the "ought"

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Science deals with the "is"

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In other ways, however, religion and science are quite alike. Both require basic cognitive mechanisms to process data
Note:SIMILITUDINI

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religion could be studied from an "outsider's" perspective, thus ignoring the truth or falsity of its claims.
Note:VISTI DA FUORI

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CHAPTER
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"While we believe V, people F believe X, and people H believe Z."
Note:MULTICULTI

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Contemporary scholars of religion also tend to value multiculturalism.
Note:ccccccc

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it seems to go without saying that religion is "cultural."
Note:RELIGIONE.... SOLO CULTURA

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Religions of America; Religions of India; Japanese Religions; The Islamic Tradition; New Religious Movements; and so on.

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the idea that societies shape individuals is an old one dating back to Marx, Durkheim, and Weber.
Note:I PADRI DEL CULTURALISMO

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The Standard Social Science Model
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CHAPTER
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the object of the action is imagined.
Note:TIPICO DELLE RELIGIONI

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"representations.

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cognitive scientists believe that religion is a by-product of the processes of ordinary human cognition.
Note:BY PRODUCT

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religious representations emerge quite naturally

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The Cognitive Revolution
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Chomsky argued that human beings learn language from culture because of the way the brain works not because of the way culture works
Note:RIVOLUZIONE CHOMSKY

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children learn to speak and comprehend language by memorizing and imitating
Note:ASSUNTO PRE CHOMSKY

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Chomsky did not fully accept this "self-evident" process, though.
Note:ccccccc

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it doesn't explain how one knows how to put the words together in the first place.
Note:METTERE INSIEME

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language speakers in all cultures have a fairly comfortable grasp of syntax.
Note:SINTASSO CONNATURAYA

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I. If you cheat you'll get ...2. No! Don't you even ...3. What is the name of that man on that TV show who ...4. Life is like a box of .. .
Note:FINISCI PLA FRASE

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you are able to come up with words to finish my thoughts. How can you do that?
Note:ccccccc

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If language acquisition is word by word, then fragments could not be completed
Note:CONFUTATO IL COMPORTAMENTISMO

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human brains are very active in the language process.
Note:CERVELLO E LINGUAGGIO

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Chomsky postulated that the brain must come prewired
Note:INNATO

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scholars could "map the mind"
Note:DA ALLORA...

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the brain is chock fill of structures that constrain the way humans behave.
Note:IL PUNTO CENTRALE

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Cognition, Culture, and the Study of Religion
Note:tttttttt

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Dan Sperber's book Rethinking Symbolism

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the proper object of the study of culture should be the mechanisms that produce and transmit symbols rather than the meanings
Note:RUOLO DEL SIMBOLO

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religious systems are susceptible to cognitive analysis because they are products of mind-brain processes.
Note:MENTE E RELIGIONE

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a supernatural explanation is likely to be invoked if, for example, a person's terminal illness is suddenly cured (miraculously).
Note:L UOMO INCLINE ALLA CAUSA SUPERNATURALE

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religious worldviews provide but one mental model among others
Note:MODELLO MENTALE

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humans instead run through the mental models available to them for the purpose of finding one that seems to work best. This widely used cognitive strategy has been termed "God-in-the-gaps reasoning"
Note:DIO DEI GAP

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when naturalistic explanations don't suffice.

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religious ideas are but one of the "multiple sufficient schemata"
Note:UNO DEI TANTI MODELLI

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The Ritual Form Hypothesis
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participants in religious rituals possessed competency in their understanding of ritual form.
Note:RUOLO DEL RITO

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ACTOR -s ACTION -s PATIENT
Note:MODELLO COGNITIVO

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Hyperactive Agency Detection Device
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McCauley's publication of Rethinking Religion,
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Guthrie's Faces in the Clouds
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humans attribute human characteristics (e.g., agency) to nonhuman things.
Note:ANTROPOMORFISMO

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voices in the wind,

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Mickey Mouse,

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Earth as Gaia"

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we are overly sensitive to the existence of agency in our world,
Note:AGENTE

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you don't instinctively think "Uh oh. That's a rock!" You think it's a bear.
Note:OMBRA NERA NEL BOSCO

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Guthrie.

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The reason for why we overattribute agency in our world is because it is advantageous to do so.
Note:IL VANTAGGIO DI ANTROPOMORFIZZARE

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mistake bears for rocks would be deadly.
Note:ccccccc

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religion involves the attribution of agents in the world
Note:RELIGIONE E ANTROPOMORFISMO

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religion is a form of anthropomorphism.

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Counterintuitiveness and Cognitive Optimum
Note:ttttttt

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Enter Pascal Boyer's

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Boyer has shown that religious concepts are constrained cognitively by intuitions we have
Note:INTUIZIONE

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human cognition provides us with an intuitive ontology
Note:ONTOLOGIA INTUITIVA

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some thoughts are more "natural"

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i. Natural objects (e.g., rocks)2. Artificial (i.e., made by humans) objects (e.g., chairs)3. Plants (e.g., flowers)4. Animals (e.g., dogs)5. Humans
Note:ENTI INTUITIVI

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These representations are counterintuitive; they are nonnatural but learnable
Note:DIO

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It seems that people find "weird" (by the standards of ontology) facts interesting.
Note:FATTI STRANI

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One of the reasons why religious ideas have such widespread appeal is that they are interesting (i.e., attention grabbing),
Note:IDEA INTERESSANTE

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Modes of Religiosity
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Harvey Whitehouse

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religions tend to diverge into either a "doctrinal" or an "imagistic"
Note:DOTTRINA E VISIONE

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Theological Correctness: What People Really Think
Note:ttttttttttt

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Justin Barrett's research on "theological correctness"

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people sometimes generate representations that contradict what they profess to believe
Note:CONTRADDIZIONE

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For example, though professing to believe that God can do all things at one time, participants in the experiments represented God as, like humans, having to complete one task before attending to another. In the minds of the research participants, God answers one prayer in one part of the world and then moves on to the next,
Note:ESEMPIO SIMULTANEITÀ

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humans possessing multiple levels of representation.
Note:PIÙ LIVELLI

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know one thing in one context but represent it differently (even contradict their deeply held "beliefs") in another context,
Note:CONTESTO

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theology involves postulations about those agents.
Note:TEOLOGIA

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Metatheory and the Category of Religion
Note:ttttttttt

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"What theory supports what counts as a category?"
Note:COME DEFINIRE LA RELIGIONE

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umbrella is something that keeps the rain

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zebra is a striped horse.

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What if the zebra had red and green stripes instead of black or dark brown and white or buff?
Note:DEFINIZ DI ZEBRA

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fulfill "necessary and sufficient conditions."

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What makes a bird a bird?
Note:PROBLEMI

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what makes a person a person.
Note:PROBLEMI

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humans categorize objects in the world through the use of prototypes.
Note:PROTOTIPI

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A penguin is a bird, but "less so" than say a parakeet or a jay.
Note:UN PÒ MENO

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religion might be more fruitfully construed prototypically than classically.
Note:PROTOTIPO E DEF CLASSICA

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it easier to evaluate whether Theravada Buddhism is more or less a "real" (i.e., prototypical) religion.
Note:IL BUDDISMO

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it most certainly is. Despite the existence of strands of nontheism in Theravada theology,
Note:LO È

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widespread representation of the Buddha as a superhuman agent.
Note:SUPERHUMAN

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Harold Kushner's

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When Bad Things Happen to Good People

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the belief in God should not be threatened by the reality of evil
Note:TEODICEA

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problem of "theodicy."

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he takes a novice to the track and asks that person to pick a horse for him.
Note:METODO X SCOMMETTERE SUI CAVALLI

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"Beginner's luck" seems to work
Note:LA FORTUNA DEL PRINCIPIANTE

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luck.

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Luck beliefs come to us quite easily.
Note:CREDERE NELLA JELLA E NELLA FORTUNA

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The list of "luck beliefs" is extensive.
Note:PORTAFORTUNA

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Radford and Radford's Encyclopedia of Superstitions (1969) is 264 pages long.

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people not only believe in luck but also performrituals they believe (or hope) will improve their luck.
Note:RITUALI

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cultural theories of religion are impoverished by a lack of understanding of how the mind works
Note:SPIEGA CULTURALE E SPIEGA COGNITIVA

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people spend most of their time thinking abductively
Note:RAZIONALIZZARE... O AGGIORNARE

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cognition that constrain religious behavior.
Note:COSTRETTI DAL CERVELLO

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intuitive ontology (what kinds of things are in the world),
Note:PRIMO FATTORE

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intuitive causality (how do those things work),
Note:SECONDO FATTORE

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intuitive probability (how are those things likely to work).
Note:TERZO FATTORE

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theological incorrectness is a natural by-product of the cognitive tools
Note:TH INC

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incorrectness is, in most cases, not only natural but also harmless. If a person is playing golf and attributes a high (i.e., bad) score to bad luck, so what?
Note:TH INC INNOCUA

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religion is a natural by-product of cognition,
Note:CONCLUSIONE

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substantive studies of religion ought to include not just theology and ethnography but also cognitive psychology.
Note:STUDIARE LA RELIGIONE

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defining religion prototypically allows for a truly comparative enterprise.
Note:COMPARARE

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CASO