is no reasonable reason, as it were, except that they are the inevitable
result of the way the machines work. Do we have a good reason for
having a precise memory of people's faces and forgetting their names?
No, but that is the way human memory works. The same applies to
religious concepts, whose persistence and effects are explained by the
way various mental systems work.
Now having a complex brain is like being a guest at Pemberley. We
enjoy the many advantages of that efficient organization, but we have
no real knowledge of what happens downstairs, of how many different
systems are involved in making mental life possible. The organization
of mental systems is in fact far more complex than anything you would [95]
find in the most extravagant household.
At Pemberley, different servants poured wine and tea; in a more
modest household, the same person would have carried out both tasks.
Because our mental basement usually works very well, we tend to
think that it must be simple in organization. We often have a suburban
view of the mind, assuming that a few servants may be enough; but
that is only an illusion, and the brain is much more like a grand estate.
What makes the system work smoothly is the exquisite coordination
of many specialized systems, each of which handles only a fragment of
the information with which we are constantly bombarded.
TO CATCH A THIEF
(USING INFERENCE SYSTEMS)
Systems in the mind are complicated and complicatedly connected.
Some of this complexity is crucial in understanding why people have
religious concepts. Fortunately, we are already familiar with the most
important aspect of mind-organization that is relevant here. In the
previous chapter I mentioned that all the objects we encounter are
mentally sorted in different ontological categories with associated expec-
tations. Having ontological categories is not just a matter of classifying
stuff out there in large classes (e.g., most roundish, furry or feathery
things "animals"; flat surfaces and sharp angles "machines"). What
makes ontological categories useful is that once something looks or
feels like an animal or a person or an artifact, you produce specific
inferencesabout that thing. You pick up different cues and process
information differently, depending on whether the object is an animal
or a person or an artifact or a natural object like a rock. If a branch
THEKIND OF MINDITTAKES