The study of the social mind by anthropologists, evolutionary biol-
ogists and psychologists gives us a new perspective on the connections
between religion and social life. Consider morality. In some places
people say that the gods laid down the rules people live by. In other
places the gods or ancestors simply watch people and sanction their
misdemeanors. In both cases people make a connection between
moral understandings (intuitions, feelings and reasoning about what is
ethical and what is not) and supernatural agents (gods, ancestors, spir-
its). It now seems clear that Voltaire's account—a god is convenient:
people will fear him and behave—got things diametrically wrong.
[28] Having concepts of gods and spirits does not really make moral rules
more compellingbut it sometimes makes them more intelligible.So we
do not have gods because that makes society function. We have gods
in part because we have the mental equipment that makes society pos-
sible but we cannot always understand how society functions.
THE SLEEP OF REASON:
RELIGION AS AN ILLUSIONTurning to the last kind of scenario: There is a long and respectable
tradition of explaining religion as the consequence of a flaw in mental
functioning. Because people do not think much or do not think very
well, the argument goes, they let all sorts of unwarranted beliefs clut-
ter their mental furniture. In other words, religion is around because
peoplefail to take prophylactic measures against beliefs.- People are superstitious; they will believe anything. People are naturally
prepared to believe all sorts of accounts of strange or
counterintuitive phenomena. Witness their enthusiasm for UFOs
as opposed to scientific cosmology, for alchemy instead of
chemistry, for urban legends instead of hard news. Religious
concepts are both cheap and sensational; they are easy to
understand and rather exciting to entertain. - Religious concepts are irrefutable. Most incorrect or incoherent claims
are easily refuted by experience or logic but religious concepts are
different. They invariably describe processes and agents whose
existence could never be verified, and consequently they are never
refuted.Asthere is no evidence against most religious claims,
people have no obvious reason to stop believing them.
RELIGION EXPLAINED