Wk 13 - Religion Flashcards
Naive/intuitive dualism is…
A world of real objects/events out there is distinct form internal/mental world of thoughts/ideas
Evolutionary advantages to religion… (x6)
Social - group solidarity/competition Economic - sustaining public goods Political - mass opiate Intellectual - explains mysteries Heath/well-being - acceptance of death Emotional
Religious believers and psychological adjustment… (x2)
Effects qualified by…
Have higher self-esteem
Better adjusted
Link is stronger in more religious countries - benefits may ride on cultural values
Believing in a controlling god may…
Insulate from aversive arousal associated with randomness
Appropriate behaviour in larger groups may be ‘policed’ through…
As in research showing the effect…
Invocation of all-seeing god
Can be evoked using ghosts, or just eyes on wall
One argument for religion, outside adaptivity, is that it’s…
A recurring cultural by-product of cognitive/emotional/material conditions of normal human interactions
The conceptual foundations of religion as a cultural by-product are…
Intuitively given by human folk mechanics, folk biology and folk psychology
Three distinctions that lend kids to religious beliefs…
Thoughts are not things - thinking unicorns doesn’t = reality
Mental attitudes are individual/subjective - our worlds/likes are different
Mental acts aren’t bodily behaviours - expression doesn’t indicate thoughts
Increasing differentiation of mind from brain/body allows children to… (x2)
Increasingly imagine the mind transcending the body’s death
Think there are things outside known reality
Children’s understanding of death…
But…
By early school, that it terminates bodily functions, applies to all living things, is irreversible
Still view the mind as active, e.g. dead mouse is still thinking
TOM, false beliefs and God…
Under 4, mum and god will know what previously unseen contents of box are
From 5, only god will
The anthropomorphism hypothesis is… (x3)
Kids first develop understanding of ordinary humans, which is extended to all agents
Later, less ltd capabilities of extraordinary agents are differentiated
Contrasts with the preparedness hypothesis
The preparedness hypothesis is… (x3)
Early conceptual structures used to reason about god are not for representing humans
Instead, facilitate acquisition/use of god/theistic concepts
Contrasts with the anthropomorphic hypothesis
Children believe religious stories because… (x3)
Tales mixing realistic/impossible content presented as historical by adults that kids trust
Kids accept evidently impossible events as real if god is invoked
Adaptive - need to believe adults, as trial-and-error truth finding could be fatal
The relationship between overimitation and ritual… (x3)
Both have stylised behaviours, that
Must be repeated in prescribed manner to attract/hold attention, and
Goals need demoting, so actions are end in themselves
