Cultural evolution fills in god content within evolved mentalizing constraints

Evidence

People “see human” in all kinds of things and beings, from natural formations, to artifacts, to pets and gods. Anthropologist Stewart Guthrie gives many examples of this in his book Faces in the Clouds. Gods are no exception. Closely tied to Barret and Keil’s original findings are studies showing that, despite scriptural prohibitions, God is believed to possess humanlike mental attributes such as beliefs, emotions, and intentions. Psychologists Adam Waytz, Nicholas Epley, and John Cacioppo tested everyday intuitions about the extent to which various entities had mental states, such as consciousness, awareness, and emotional experiences. They asked participants about four commonly anthropomorphized entities: nonhuman animals, natural entities such as rocks and mountains, technological devices such as computers and car engines, and God and other supernatural agents. Peoples’ tendency to attribute humanlike minds to God was so tied up with their belief in God that it made no sense to separate anthropomorphizing God from believing in God. My own studies independently confirm this finding: the intuition that God is a personlike being with mental states and believing in God are highly related. An abstract, impersonal God is theologically possible, but psychologically not compelling. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 77 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

But cultural information is not encoded in DNA and, for the longest time, biologists drew a line in the sand with “biological” evolution on one side, and “cultural” evolution on the other. Now that line is disappearing. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 493 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Supernatural agents’ minimal counterintuitiveness explains their cultural advantage; Religious belief is a by-product of cognitive predispositions, not an evolved adaptation — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 357; Religious survival advantage resists explanation by individual or genetic selection (+5 more)

Related

• Religious belief requires intuitive mentalizing about a personal God (similarity 0.85)
• Believing in God is inseparable from anthropomorphizing God as a personlike mind (similarity 0.85)
• Mind-reading capacity supplies the cognitive basis for belief in disembodied gods (similarity 0.83)
• Religious belief is a by-product of cognitive predispositions, not an evolved adaptation (similarity 0.82)
• Supernatural beliefs require cultural commitment to become religion, not just cognitive content. (similarity 0.79)
• Cultural learning biases explain passionate commitment to some gods but not others (similarity 0.79)
• Supernatural agency beliefs filter through evolved person-perception psychology (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Mind-reading capacity supplies the cognitive basis for belief in disembodied gods #expands (0.90)
• Believing in God is inseparable from anthropomorphizing God as a personlike mind #corroborates (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 77
• The boundary between biological and cultural evolution is dissolving #expands (0.75) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 493