Does this get us anywhere nearer answering the question, Why do
people believe all this? Yes. I think it is in fact more or less the answer.WHAT MAKES SUPERNATURAL AGENTS
MORE PLAUSIBLEWhat makes us assent to a general statement such as "Children are
underdeveloped versions of adults" is not that we really perform a
general assessment of the evidence but rather that various mental sys-
[314] tems, out of sight as it were, produce intuitions compatible with that
general statement. None of the systems is busy considering whether it
really is the case that children are underdeveloped adults, but most of
them produce inferences that contribute to the relevance of the gen-
eral statement.
Now this is quite similar to what happens when people entertain
particular thoughts about ancestors, gods or spirits. Since people's
thoughts about ancestors are focused on a variety of different situa-
tions, it is not surprising that many different systems are involved.
The intuitive psychology system treats ancestors (or God) as inten-
tional agents, the exchange system treats them as exchange partners,
the moral system treats them as potential witnesses to moral action,
the person-file system treats them as distinct individuals. This means
that quite a lot of mental work is going on, producing specific infer-
ences about the ancestors, without ever requiring explicit general
statements to the effect that, for example, "there really are invisible
ancestors around," "they are dead people," "they have powers," etc.
Naturally, most of the inferences I have mentioned are compatiblewith
these general assumptions. But none of the systems involved was busy
deciding whether the general statements were true or not. Indeed,
none of these systems is designed to handle such abstract questions.
For instance, when people offer a pig and expect protection in return,
the intuition that this behavior is appropriate is supported by their
social exchange system, which only says this: if there is an exchange
partner and if that partner does receive a benefit, then you can expect
the partner to send some benefits back to you. But that system is not
in charge of deciding whether the partners are really around or not.
When you see that other people are sacrificing pigs to get protection,
this activates your social exchange system because that is the most rel-
evant way to make sense of what they are doing.
RELIGION EXPLAINED