you can start describing the effects of concepts in the mind and under-
stand why some of them may well become persuasive enough that
people "believe" them. I do not think that people have religion
because they relax their usually strict criteria for evidence and accept
extraordinary claims; I think they are led to relax these criteria because
some extraordinary claims have become quite plausible to them.
PROGRESS BOX 4:
RELIGION AND REASONING [31]- The sleep of reason is no explanation for
religion as it is. There are many possible unsup-
ported claims and only a few religious themes. - Belief is not just passive acceptance of
what others say. People relax their standards
because some thoughts become plausible, not the
other way around. - A different angle: We should understand
what makes human minds so selective in what
supernatural claims they find plausible.
TURNING THE QUESTION UPSIDE DOWNAt this point we should perhaps close this survey. We could in princi-
ple carry on for quite some time, as philosophers, historians and psy-
chologists have come up with many more suggestions. However,
there is a diminishing return for this kind of discussion, as most ori-
gin scenarios suffer from similar flaws. If religion is reassuring, why
does it create much of the anxiety it cures? If it explains the world,
why does it do it with such baroque complication? Why does it have
these common, recurrent themes rather than a great variety of
irrefutable ideas? Why is it so closely connected to morality, whereas
WHATISTHEORIGIN?