Jerry Coyne’s pithy summary of the distinction between science and religion, “In religion faith is a virtue; in science it’s a vice,” comes from “Science and Religion Aren’t Friends,” a column in the October 11, 2010, edition of USA Today.
Fundamentalists of all stripes advocate murder, misogyny, the suspension of civil liberties, prohibitions on life-saving medical research, and early “godly” education that amounts to child abuse. Will the world ever awaken from its long nightmare of religious belief? Christian fundamentalists, jihadists, creationists, and “intelligent design” theorists all use modern electronic devices, yet they choose to ignore that the same science that dictates the flow of electrons in cell phones and computers reveals how the universe really works. Modern electronics is part of the same science that confirms natural selection and reveals our origins and evolutionary history from primates, monkeys, apes, and early hominids. It leaves no room for divine intervention, a 6,000-year-old earth, or a world built in a week by a divine architect and construction engineer. Tim Folger, foreword to The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
Authors’ Note
If this little book has interested you in the new debates about religion, you will enjoy any and all of the following:
www.richarddawkins.net
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel (2007) and Nomad (2010)
Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell (2006)
Sam Harris, The End of Faith (2004), Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), and The Moral Landscape (2010)
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great (2007) and The Portable Atheist (2007)
Glossary
The following are the principal mechanisms of our minds that combine to give us religious belief.
attachment. This most basic of human needs almost defines religion’s premise. Religion supplements or supplants family.
childhood credulity. We all believe too readily, with too little evidence. Children are even more vulnerable, especially when taught by someone with a mantle of authority.
costly signaling. A man whipping his back to a pulp must be committed to his faith and will be my ally if I too believe.
decoupled cognition. This allows us to conduct a complex social interaction in our mind with an unseen other.
deference to authority. We are all more deferential to authority figures than we can see or want to admit to ourselves.
dreams. They are perhaps the original perception interpreted as proof of another world of people and ancestors.
hyperactive agency detection. This leads us to assume that unknown forces are human agents. It evolved to protect us. We mistake a shadow for a burglar and never mistake a burglar for a shadow. It encourages anthropomorphism.
kin psychology. We are hardwired to prefer our kin over others.
intensionality. This allows us to speculate about others’ thoughts about our thoughts, desires, beliefs, and intentions.
intuitive reasoning. This helps us “fill in the blanks” of logic.
mind-body dualism. This allows us to separate mind from body and to believe in a “soul.”
minimally counterintuitive worlds. This allows belief in the supernatural, as long as it’s not too “super” and does not violate too many basic tenets of humanness.
mirror neurons. We literally feel each other’s pain; this is inborn, not invented by religion. We are born caring about others.
moral-feeling systems. These generate our moral decisions. They are instinctual and automatic. Because they operate largely outside of awareness, religions can claim ownership of them and insist we are only moral with faith.
precautionary reasoning. Better safe than sorry.
promiscuous teleology. This arises from our bias to understand the world as purpose driven.
reciprocal altruism. You scratch my back. I’ll scratch yours.
ritual behavior. This enhances group cohesion and tests who is committed to the group.
romantic love. People fall in love with Jesus, or whichever deity figure they choose, calling on the same mental capacities that lead them to attachment.
song and dance. They harness our neurochemistry that reduces pain and fear and increases trust, love, self-esteem, and cooperation.
theory of mind. This allows us to “read” others’ possible thoughts, desires, beliefs, and intentions.
transference. We can accept religious figures as easily as we accepted the family figures we’ve known since birth. We transfer our familial thoughts to religious figures.
Why We Believe in God(s) - Andy Thomson - Atheist Book Page 11