Real gods are stranger than fiction – for adults at least

Last updated on: November 13, 2014 at 6:26 pm by Epiphenom

Real gods are stranger than fiction – for adults at least 2014-11-13T18:26:53+01:00 Epiphenom

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The striking thing about supernatural creatures – gods, demons, goblins and the like – is just how very like humans they are. Very often, they will have only one or two magical features, but their other characteristics are decidedly anthropomorphic.

Question is: does this reveal something about the way our minds work? Are there limits to what we can invent?

Cognitive psychologist Pascal Boyer, in his classic book Religion Explained, suggested that supernatural beings are just weird enough to be special, but not so weird as to be difficult to remember or identify with. They are, in his words, minimally counter-intuitive.

Now, clearly many gods break this rule – the Christian concept of trinity is probably as counter-intuitive as it is possible to get. But what subsequent research has shown is that popular concepts of gods conform quite closely to the minimally counter-intuitive model – they are much more anthropomorphic than are theologically correct concepts.

A recent study by Andrew Shtulman has challenged this idea by comparing religious beings (e.g. God, angels) with ones that look similar but are popularly believed to be fictional (e.g. fairies, ghosts).

One of the things he did was to ask children and their parents whether these beings had a variety of anthropomorphic properties. The figure above shows what they found.

In the kids’ minds, both fictional and religious beings were both equally anthropomorphic. Not only did they think like humans (e.g. they could be happy or sad), but they also had physical attributes (e.g. they could be located either inside or outside) and also had biological needs (they got hungry, for example).

The curious thing is that, when it came to describing religious beings, parents gave only half as many physical and biological attributes as did their children. In other words, adults were more likely to think of these entities as disembodied minds.

What this suggests is that you don’t need to think about gods as abstract, non-anthropomorphic beings to start believing in them. But if you are going to maintain that belief, then you have to shift your ideas in that direction.

What’s more, it shows that beliefs about God aren’t fixed in childhood, as some people suppose. In order to retain their beliefs, people adapt them as they mature.

And finally, this does rather suggest that maybe we do have a natural predilection to imagine gods in an anthropomorphic way. Don’t forget, even adults listed on average one physical and one biological attribute to God and angels. Maybe the gods adults believe in are not minimally counter-intuitive, but it seems they are not totally counter-intuitive!

There’s just something intrinsically appealing about a the idea of a person with superhuman powers!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Shtulman, A. (2008). Variation in the anthropomorphization of supernatural beings and its implications for cognitive theories of religion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34 (5), 1123-1138 DOI: 10.1037/0278-7393.34.5.1123

This work by Tom Rees is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 9, 2009

More on Biologos: the morality god-of-the-gaps

Next Post

May 13, 2009 A first look at Supersense

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Causes of religion - evolution Causes of religion - psychological Causes of religion - social Demographics Digest Effects of religion - health Effects of religion - psychological Effects of religion - social Notifications Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Paul, what is the "root of all kinds of evil"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The love of money Love of learning Worry Fear of God