Transcript Slajd 1 - Just Another Deisidaimon

Religions exapt supernatural beliefs
Konrad Talmont-Kaminski
Marie Curie-Sklodowska University
Background
 Philosopher of mind and science
 Working with cognitive psychologists & evolutionary
explanations of human behaviour
 Research carried out at Konrad Lorenz Institute for
Evolution and Cognition Research
Plan
 Evolutionary explanations of religion
 By-products: Religion and the supernatural
 Group adaptations: Religion and ideology
 Exaptation of existing cognitive propensities
 Religion as supernatural ideology
Evolution of religion
 Evolutionary explanations of religion
 Understanding religion as the effect of evolutionary change
 Genetic evolution – cognitive science of religion
 Cultural evolution
 Using evolutionary theory to explain religion
 Religion as adaptation – group cohesion
 Religion as ancestral trait
 Religion as by-product – cognitive biases
Religion as by-product
 Cognitive science of religion (Atran, Boyer, Barrett, etc.)
 Explains religion as cognitive by-product
 Based upon evolutionary psychology
 Focussed on religious beliefs
 Examples
 Hypersensitive Agent Detection Device (Barrett)
 Minimally counter-intuitive concepts (Boyer)
 Problem (for the account)
 Does not clearly distinguish religion from other supernatural
beliefs
Supernatural as by-product
 ‘Cognitive science of the supernatural’
 Genetically based evolution of cognitive mechanisms
 Cognitive factors under-determine supernatural content
 Problem (for the phenomenon)
 Supernatural beliefs highly unstable
 Beliefs that are more stable will dominate
Religion as adaptation
 Group adaptation account (D.S. Wilson)
 Explains religion as motivating in-group co-operation
 Arising out of work on altruism
 Focussed on function of religious belief systems
 Examples
 Rules governing Calvinist communities
 Jain mystics as community’s morality police
 Problem (for the account)
 Does not clearly distinguish religions from other ideologies
Ideologies as adaptation
 Group adaptation account of ideology
 Cultural evolution of belief systems
 Ideologies fail to live up to promises
 Problem (for the phenomenon)
 Ideologies highly unstable
 Ideologies that are more stable will dominate
The problems
The accounts
The phenomena
 On by-product account
 Most supernatural beliefs
religion insufficiently
distinguished from other
supernatural beliefs
 On adaptation account
religion insufficiently
distinguished from other
ideologies
 Contradictory accounts?
highly unstable
 Most ideologies highly
unstable
 Combine them?
Basic conception
Group selection
Cognitive by-product
Exaptation
 Putting existing traits to new uses
 Put forward by Gould
 Example
 Feathers in dinosaurs and birds
 Hands
 Use with supernatural beliefs
 Individual beliefs
 Cognitive mechanisms
Supernatural ideology
 Mutual support
 Supernatural beliefs plausible
 Help to motivate ideology
 Help to motivate practices
 Ideology functional
 Makes beliefs functional and thereby stable
Conclusions
 Religion a complex phenomenon
 Cultural aspects
 Biological aspects
 Account only deals with some aspects of it
 Potentially extendible by considering further aspects
 Connection between testability and functionality of beliefs
 Role of religious organisations in stabilising ideology
Thank you
Konrad Talmont-Kaminski
[email protected] http://deisidaimon.wordpress.com