Gods in the Mind II - Reasoning about Gods and the Afterlife

Question 1

Intuitive thoughts (Barrett, 2004)

Answer 1

1. May of may not be consciously explicit
2. Produced automatically and rapidly
3. Produced by one or a small number of mental tools
4. Typically strong within-group uniformity

Question 2

Reflective thoughts (Barrett, 2004)

Answer 2

1. Consciously and explicitly held
2. Produced deliberately and often slowly
3. Draws on outputs of many mental tools and memories
4. Great potential for within-group variation

Question 3

Intuitive knowledge (Barrett, 1999)

Answer 3

More concrete and simple knowledge

Question 4

Theological concepts (Barrett, 1999)

Answer 4

Theological concepts are more abstract and require less context than basic concepts

Question 5

Barret and Keil (1996)

Answer 5

Participants agreed that God was omnipotent and all-present, however when placed with a situation which would require God to be in two places (helping an angel with a puzzle and helping a woman escape a forest), they were more likely to recall human characteristics of God

Question 6

Implications of Barret and Keil (1996)

Answer 6

• Reflective (theological correct) beliefs are difficult to be maintained in real-time problem solving, circumstances because of processing demands.
• Are there two different concepts of God?
• Do we reason about God just like another person?

Question 7

Anthropomorphism hypothesis

Answer 7

Representing human properties and projecting it onto Gods

Question 8

Preparedness hypothesis

Answer 8

We are prepared for certain types of representation, compared to the more complex anthropomorphic representation.

Question 9

Anthropomorphism hypothesis and Theory of Mind

Answer 9

Since young children have a lack of Theory of Mind, children begin by having a theological correct God concept. They then shift to a theological inaccurate one, then back to the correct one as they age.

Question 10

Barrett, Richert and Drisenga (2001)

Answer 10

Three year olds believed that everyone would know there are rocks in the box that should have sweets. With older children (3-6), they acknowledged that humans and animals wouldn’t know there were rocks in the box but God still would.

Question 11

Implications of Barrett, Richert and Drisenga (2001)

Answer 11

• Children need not treat all agents as humans … anthropomorphism hypothesis disproven?
• Children may be better prepared for conceptualising the properties of nonhuman agent concepts than for understanding humans
• Full access strategic agents (Boyer, 2001)

Question 12

Full access strategic agents

Answer 12

Many God representations are all-knowing, and this could be used to promote and maintain co-operations within groups.

Question 13

Bering and Bjorklund (2004)

Answer 13

Older children and adults are more likely to state that biological and psychological states ceased after death. Certain psychological states were more likely to cease after death than others (epistemic least likely).

Younger children make no difference between life and death.

Question 14

Implications of Bering and Bjorklund (2004)

Answer 14

• Simulation constraints: absence of certain state have been experienced (thirst, hunger) whereas others have not.
• “It is difficult to imagine nonexistence, because one is imagining oneself as unable to imagine” (Hinde, 1999)
• Increase of cessation responses with age = evidence against strict learning model of religious indoctrination?

Question 15

Bering, Blasi and Bjorklund (2005)

Answer 15

Asked secular and Catholic children which states cease after death. Hypothesised that religious children have fewer overall cessation responses than secular children, as well as overall pattern (i.e. biological states have higher cessation rates than psychological states) remains the same.

Question 16

Bering, Blasi and Bjorklund (2005) Conclusions

Answer 16

• Religiously schooled children show less cessation response than secularly schooled children (only significant for 11-12 year olds)
• Overall pattern of cessation remains the same (i.e. More likely to discontinue biological states)

Question 17

Bering, Blasi and Bjorklund (2005) Implications

Answer 17

• Evidence that certain aspects of afterlife beliefs are grounded in cognitive factors that are likely to be independent of religious schooling.
• Religious instruction could serve to enhance a default stance