The belief-sickness we have is a function of... EVOLUTION!
Scientific American unveils the most lascivious of ironies:The problem is that we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns. So we make two types of errors: a type I error, or false positive, is believing a pattern is real when it is not; a type II error, or false negative, is not believing a pattern is real when it is. If you believe that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind (a type I error), you are more likely to survive than if you believe that the rustle in the grass is just the wind when it is a dangerous predator (a type II error). Because the cost of making a type I error is less than the cost of making a type II error and because there is no time for careful deliberation between patternicities in the split-second world of predator-prey interactions, natural selection would have favored those animals most likely to assume that all patterns are real.
But we do something other animals do not do. As large-brained hominids with a developed cortex and a theory of mind-the capacity to be aware of such mental states as desires and intentions in both ourselves and others-we infer agency behind the patterns we observe in a practice I call “agenticity”: the tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents. We believe that these intentional agents control the world, sometimes invisibly from the top down (as opposed to bottom-up causal randomness). Together patternicity and agenticity form the cognitive basis of shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms.
This is blowing my mind. How deeply ironic that evolution produces belief that produces an entire majority of people who then do not acknowledge evolution. WOW!
I'm deeply intrigued at my recent exploration of my own belief sickness and what it has revealed: simple, explainable mechanisms that allow me to understand others, as well as myself, more thoroughly. Every day, I'm less and less surprised at people's actions; I understand them better and better and hold them in less contempt than ever before. I suppose my mantra of "I will be free from fear, lust, anger, and contempt" is working...There is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience that humans readily find patterns and impart agency to them, well documented in the new book SuperSense (HarperOne, 2009) by University of Bristol psychologist Bruce Hood. Examples: children believe that the sun can think and follows them around; because of such beliefs, they often add smiley faces on sketched suns [or ancient cultures created a pantheon of gods based on the agenticity of the sun and clouds even!]. Adults typically refuse to wear a mass murderer’s sweater, believing that “evil” is a supernatural force that imparts its negative agency to the wearer (and, alternatively, that donning Mr. Rogers’s cardigan will make you a better person). A third of transplant patients believe that the donor’s personality is transplanted with the organ. Genital-shaped foods (bananas, oysters) are often believed to enhance sexual potency. Subjects watching geometric shapes with eye spots interacting on a computer screen conclude that they represent agents with moral intentions.
In my own world, my mom was worried about giving M and I 'rings from a failed marriage'... as if that would cloud or pollute our own relationship. We just thought they were cool rings and could give them a new direction... and we have!
But we do something other animals do not do. As large-brained hominids with a developed cortex and a theory of mind-the capacity to be aware of such mental states as desires and intentions in both ourselves and others-we infer agency behind the patterns we observe in a practice I call “agenticity”: the tendency to believe that the world is controlled by invisible intentional agents. We believe that these intentional agents control the world, sometimes invisibly from the top down (as opposed to bottom-up causal randomness). Together patternicity and agenticity form the cognitive basis of shamanism, paganism, animism, polytheism, monotheism, and all modes of Old and New Age spiritualisms.
This is blowing my mind. How deeply ironic that evolution produces belief that produces an entire majority of people who then do not acknowledge evolution. WOW!
I'm deeply intrigued at my recent exploration of my own belief sickness and what it has revealed: simple, explainable mechanisms that allow me to understand others, as well as myself, more thoroughly. Every day, I'm less and less surprised at people's actions; I understand them better and better and hold them in less contempt than ever before. I suppose my mantra of "I will be free from fear, lust, anger, and contempt" is working...There is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience that humans readily find patterns and impart agency to them, well documented in the new book SuperSense (HarperOne, 2009) by University of Bristol psychologist Bruce Hood. Examples: children believe that the sun can think and follows them around; because of such beliefs, they often add smiley faces on sketched suns [or ancient cultures created a pantheon of gods based on the agenticity of the sun and clouds even!]. Adults typically refuse to wear a mass murderer’s sweater, believing that “evil” is a supernatural force that imparts its negative agency to the wearer (and, alternatively, that donning Mr. Rogers’s cardigan will make you a better person). A third of transplant patients believe that the donor’s personality is transplanted with the organ. Genital-shaped foods (bananas, oysters) are often believed to enhance sexual potency. Subjects watching geometric shapes with eye spots interacting on a computer screen conclude that they represent agents with moral intentions.
In my own world, my mom was worried about giving M and I 'rings from a failed marriage'... as if that would cloud or pollute our own relationship. We just thought they were cool rings and could give them a new direction... and we have!