Why Religion is Natural feat. Robert McCauley

Robert McCauley is the Kenan University Professor of Philosophy at Emory University with associated appointments in psychology, religion, and anthropology.

In his view, our minds are better suited to religious belief than to scientific inquiry because the explanations that religion provides make intuitive sense to us and engage our natural cognitive systems, while science involves abstract thinking and forms of reflection that require a lot of mental work. 

His books include “Hearing Voices and Other Matters of Mind,” and “Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not.”

Greg and Robert discuss a number of topics in this episode including contamination management systems, cognitive fluidity, and developing intuition.

Episode Quotes:

Religions & natural systems

Because these systems are natural, cognitively natural, because they're intuitive, because they're automatic, because they're instantaneous, it just means that folks instantly know how to manage them. They don't need to be taught that God thinks about certain things, certain ways. Or that if he thinks about certain things, certain ways that he must want certain outcomes to, you know, go in one direction as opposed to another. Those are inferences that are just automatic.

On science

Science, it seems to me is something that also has certain cognitively natural dimensions to it.

What is religion

I actually don't offer any definitions of religion. I'm really not interested in definitions of religion, I'm not worried about that. What I'm interested in is cognition and how it Impacts whole host of systems out there in the world that we call “religions.”

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Dan Sperber
• Stephen Jay Gould - Wikipedia
• Michael McCloskey | Cognitive Science | Johns Hopkins University
• Justin Barrett
• Frank Keil | Department of Psychology
• Shane Frederick | Yale School of Management
• Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen - Autism Research Centre

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Emory College
• Professional Profile at Psychology Today
• Robert McCauley’s Website
• Robert McCauley on LinkedIn

His Work:

• Robert McCauley on Google Scholar
• Robert McCauley on Psychology Today
• Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind: What Mental Abnormalities Can Teach Us About Religions
• Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion: A Head Start 
• Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not
• Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural

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