PROGRESS BOX 8: THE MIND IT TAKES
(TO HAVE RELIGION)- The mind it takes to have religion is the
standard architecture that we all have by virtue of
being members of the species. (We need no special
mentality or mind.) - Because of decoupling and specialization, [135]
human minds are sensitive to a particular range of
cultural gadgets. - (To anticipate:) Religious concepts too are
probably successful to the extent that they activate
inference systems.
All this brings us back to serious religion. We must not assume that
cultural creations of this type are confined to unimportant domains,
from the real but minor pleasure of jokes to the real but not vital func-
tions of music and visual art. This would be misleading. I used the
example of caste pollution to show that once human minds acquire
such cognitive artifacts the consequences can be very serious indeed. A
great part of social interaction is founded on similar notions in many
parts of the world. More generally, religious concepts too constitute
salient cognitive artifacts whose successful cultural transmission
depends on the fact that they activate our inference systems in particu-
lar ways. The reason religion can become much more serious and
important than the artifacts described so far is that it activates infer-
ence systems that are of vital importance to us: those that govern our
most intense emotions, shape our interaction with other people, give
us moral feelings, and organize social groups.
THEKIND OF MIND ITTAKES