or understanding a joke also engage this complex machinery (though
in different ways). If you want to explain how human minds acquire
religious concepts, why these concepts become plausible and why they
trigger such strong emotions, you will have to describe all the invisible
processes that create such thoughts, make it possible to communicate
them, and trigger all sorts of associated mental effects such as emotion
and commitment.EXPLAINING AIRY NOTHING:
[50] MAGIC BULLETS VS.AGGREGATE RELEVANCE
All scenarios for the origin of religion assume that there must be a
single factor that will explain why there is religion in all human
groups and why it triggers such important social, cognitive, emotional
effects. This belief in a "magic bullet" is, unfortunately, exceedingly
stubborn. It has hampered our understanding of the phenomenon for
a long time. Progress in anthropology and psychology tells us why the
belief was naive. Some concepts happen to connect with inference
systems in the brain in a way that makes recall and communication
very easy. Some concepts happen to trigger our emotional programs
in particular ways. Some concepts happen to connect to our social
mind. Some of them are represented in such a way that they soon
become plausible and direct behavior. The ones that do allthis are
the religious ones we actually observe in human societies. They are
most successful because they combine features relevant to a variety of
mental systems.
This is precisely why religion cannot be explained by a single magic
bullet. Since cultural concepts are the objects of constant selection in
minds, through acquisition and communication, the ones that we find
widespread in many different cultures and at different times probably
have some transmission advantage, relative to severaldifferent mental
dispositions. They are relevant to different systems in the mind. This
is why it takes several chapters to approach a question that many peo-
ple, in my experience, can solve to their entire satisfaction in a few sec-
onds of dinner-table conversation.RELIGION EXPLAINED