Belief in gods emerges from ordinary cognition, not dedicated brain machinery

Evidence

There is no need, then, to postulate any special brain mechanisms exclusively dedicated to belief in gods. Nor is there any necessary partitioning between “cultural” and “religious” mental representations. The ordinary workings of human minds produce a constrained but diverse set of beliefs, some of which we may call “supernatural” because they rupture intuitive expectations about basic categories of existence. Cultural learning strategies shape, modify, and elaborate innate default intuitions. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 131

Categorization

• XREF: This deflationary position on supernatural cognition is the natural-science scaffolding the reader’s Big God/partner-choice integration sits on — gods as ordinary cognitive products undercuts any special-sacred explanation of Rodrigues’ experience. — connects to: Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44; Belief in gods depends on an intuitive mind-body dualism — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 574; Mind-reading capacity supplies the cognitive basis for belief in disembodied gods (+8 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44; Belief in gods depends on an intuitive mind-body dualism — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 574; Mind-reading capacity supplies the cognitive basis for belief in disembodied gods (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Ordinary cognition, not special modules, produces religious beliefs #corroborates (1.00) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 44