Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion by Todd Tremlin
Non-scholarly musings on a Scholarly work
So it is then established that Gods, Religious concepts and Rituals are natural effervescences of the kind of mind that we posses, parasitic on our cognitive processes. It (our minds) is uniquely suited to imbibe them.
Mark though: We cannot (yet) make a claim that our minds WILL produce Gods and Religions and Rituals if left to themselves (though historical evidence might indicate that this could well be the case) but only that our minds cannot avoid the God Meme once exposed to it. Our society is very efficient at ensuring that.
An Atheist or an Agnostic is in this way, in this fundamental cognitive aspect of the nature of our cognitive construction, indistinguishable from a Theist – once exposed to a God concept they cannot but let their mind’s velcro stick to those burs forever.
The Theist adheres to a theological notion, the Agnostic to a scientific/skeptic’s credo and an Atheist to his own brand of faith in a new-found Religion of Science (reminding one of the Buddhists who tried to go nuclear (agnostic) and ended up as theistic in daily life).
But, we do have two brains inside us (yes, that is quite a ‘new’ finding too)) as Daniel Kahneman elaborates in his new book (Thinking, Fast and Slow) and only our rational brain system (read pathway) can entertain these abstract concepts. Our emotional/instinctive (read pathway) brain will still repeatedly resort to the God Concept we are familial (thus familiar) with in most of our our “on-line” thinking – that is in our daily (non-abstract-thinking) life.
“Deal with it”, the message is: We are all the same – Theists, Agnostics, Atheists or whatever we call ourselves, we are all in the same boat believing in the same agencies “on-line” and professing different versions of our pet abstractions “off-line”.
Not even managing to fool ourselves.
Disclaimer:
The above review is not a summation of the book but more a running with the ball tossed by it. The book is a study and an overview of the new Science of the Cognitive Study of Religion and deals with Religion in a new way – as a cognitive by-product of our psychology and our evolution. It is thoroughly fascinating and can lead to all sorts of ideas just as any new science should.
Related articles
- The God Delusion – Why there almost certainly is no God? (wanderingmirages.com)
- Kahneman talks rationality (yaledailynews.com)
- Why Religion is Natural, Science is Not – a review (phulme.wordpress.com)
- Weekend Lecture: In Conversation with Daniel Kahneman (businessinsider.com)
- How To Know If You Are An Atheist (atheistrev.com)
- Agnostic, atheist, anti-theist, whose right? (richarddawkins.net)
- All Children are Born Atheists (theageofblasphemy.wordpress.com)
- Daniel Kahneman and Nassim Taleb NYPL 80 Minute Talk (valuewalk.com)
- The Friendly God Debate (thebackroomcatholic.wordpress.com)
- Sooooo, I’m not really sure how to start out but… (shawnandsimone.wordpress.com)
Rohini
Riku
Wandering Mirages 
angelinajhon
April 4, 2013 at 07:23
The Cognitive System Or Who Draws The Picture In Our Heads
Everyday our mind is bombarded with all kinds information. Very often we fail to cope with all this information
overload and become easy to manipulate. To prevent ourselves from this, we should explore how our cognitive system
works in order to have a more insightful outlook for the processes in our minds.
What exactly is our cognitive system?
view ans click here…. http://bitterbananas.com/the-cognitive-system-or-who-draws-the-picture-in-our-Aheads/
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