Religion – What Is It?

three serious studies …. more to come   ​ Scott Atran: In Gods We Trust   Science and Religion: Four Fundamental Differences (2013-05-23) Fantasy and Religion: One Fundamental Difference (Or, Why God’s Word Will Never Fail) (2013-05-26)   Neil Van Leeuwen: Religious credence is not factual belief Religious Credence is Not Factual Belief: 1 (2015-08-29) … Continue reading “Religion – What Is It?”


Atheists Do Not Understand Religion

Not all atheists. But many. Especially those who, as I myself have done in the past, loathe any form of religion, even in its mild liberal form, as a gateway to extremism, life-destroying fundamentalism, even violence. How many have declared that among Muslims, for example, the truly devout, those who take their religion seriously, are … Continue reading “Atheists Do Not Understand Religion”


Religion Explained – Why Rituals (Explaining the origin of the Lord’s Supper)

Why for that matter do people gather in a special building, listen to accounts of a long-past torture-session and pretend to eat the flesh of a god? (Boyer, p. 262) As we noted recently, our historian friend Eddie Marcus made the following comment — I paraphrase: Christians obsessed over the eucharist. The reason we think … Continue reading “Religion Explained – Why Rituals (Explaining the origin of the Lord’s Supper)”


Religion Explained: How to Make a Good Religious Concept

Let’s try to understand what religious beliefs are. What makes a religious belief work, take hold, and are found across cultures and generations? In these posts I’m continuing to focus on Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought by Pascal Boyer whose explanation is grounded in cognitive theory. That is, this is a cognitive explanation … Continue reading “Religion Explained: How to Make a Good Religious Concept”


Was Religion Invented to Explain Things — or to Compound Mystery? . . . Or. . . ?

Thunder, earthquakes, droughts, a good harvest, the movements of the sun, moon, planets — we know that ancient people had hosts of myths to explain how all of these things “worked”. It is easy to assume that religious ideas were developed out of primitive attempts to explain these sorts of natural phenomena. Then there are … Continue reading “Was Religion Invented to Explain Things — or to Compound Mystery? . . . Or. . . ?”


Religion: It’s More Than We Often Think

Religion is more than the faiths most of us grew up with. Christianity, Judaism, Islam — these represent only one family branch of religion. If we want to understand “what religion is” and explore why it is that religion is so pervasive among humanity then it’s a good idea to have as complete a picture … Continue reading “Religion: It’s More Than We Often Think”


Sam Harris: Wrong (again) about Religion and Radicalization

At about the 40th minute in Waking Up with Sam Harris:#43 — What Do Jihadists Really Want? Sam Harris explains his understanding of the nature and origin of religion. The same fundamental error is made by New Atheists more generally according to my understanding of the writings of the likes of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. … Continue reading “Sam Harris: Wrong (again) about Religion and Radicalization”


Is Religion for the Gullible?

It is easy enough for us atheists to mock religion (and much of it is indeed “mockable”) but we cannot ignore the fact that some very intelligent and well-educated people hold these beliefs. So is it really gullibility that is responsible for people believing that they go to a heavenly paradise or agonizing hell when … Continue reading “Is Religion for the Gullible?”


Is Religion Somehow In Our Genetic Makeup?

Here is an answer to that question that I found interesting. It is from Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, pp. 3-4: Does this mean religion is “innate” and “in the genes”? I—and most people interested in the evolution of the human mind—think that the question is in fact meaningless and that it … Continue reading “Is Religion Somehow In Our Genetic Makeup?”


Another Sceptic Bites the Dust — Becomes a Believer

I enjoyed this interview with Hercule Poirot actor David Suchet. I have set it at about the beginning of the section in which he describes how he came to become a Christian. His background was both Jewish and Catholic (not religiously committed in either case). The critical moment that interested me most is his account … Continue reading “Another Sceptic Bites the Dust — Becomes a Believer”


Argument for God — part 3, final (arguments against atheism)

Barrett next raises what he sees as “reflective problems for atheists“. (For Barrett’s meaning of the term “reflective beliefs” see the opening post in this series: Gods (An Anthropology of Religion Perspective) and its specific application to belief/nonbelief in God, Argument for God — part 1.) Barrett appears to be suggesting that an atheist must … Continue reading “Argument for God — part 3, final (arguments against atheism)”


Another Interlude with Morality — Why Moral Beings Can Be Brutes

Let’s stay on detour from our Why People Believe in Gods series of posts for another moment . . . . Returning to that earlier quotation of James Q. Wilson, here it is in full (the bolded highlighting is my own) . . . . Contrary to Freud, it is not simply their innate aggressiveness … Continue reading “Another Interlude with Morality — Why Moral Beings Can Be Brutes”


Where Does Morality Come From? — a fifth mental tool

This post is an interlude, a necessary detour in our series on God and why people believe in God. In that series we have limited our focus to four fundamental mental tools or devices: naive physics, naive biology, agent detection, theory of mind. Before continuing that series I think it a good idea to backtrack … Continue reading “Where Does Morality Come From? — a fifth mental tool”


Towards Understanding Religious Fundamentalism and Extremism (and atheist in-fighting, too?)

I began this series about religion and religious extremism with the post, Atheists Do Not Understand Religion As I was thinking through the sequel to that post I came up with another application of the principles (essentialism, coalitional behaviour): Atheist Hostility to Jesus Mythicism … making sense of it Let’s recap with the point with … Continue reading “Towards Understanding Religious Fundamentalism and Extremism (and atheist in-fighting, too?)”