Religion Explained
by Pascal Boyer

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Book Reviews of Religion Explained

Book Review: A masterful exploration of how the brain shapes belief
Summary: 5 Stars

This is one of those rare books that can literally change the way you perceive the world; it will give you a new perspective that can demystify many perplexing aspects of human societies -- particularly those involving the bewildering panoply of religious beliefs and rituals. Why are supernatural beings imagined as human-like, with emotions and quirks, yet able to read the minds or transcend space and time? Why are religionists keenly aware of what a supernatural agent does, and why, yet never wonder how his deeds are actually accomplished? Why do religions so frequently involve sacrifices and carefully scripted ceremonies? Boyer argues that all of these oddities can be clearly understood in terms of a small number of basic templates that we unconsciously invoke as we reason about the world. As Boyer puts it,

"People build concepts in ways that activate their inference systems most and produce the richest set of inferences with the least cognitive effort."

For example, people are particularly attuned to factors that impinge on social interactions -- they pick them up very readily, and store them and transmit them efficiently. This fact alone begins to shed light on the human propensity to invent human-like gods that are intimately concerned with human affairs. Simply put, our brains are laden with machinery to discern, interpret, and reason about social interaction; it's what our brains look for and traffic in. We are prepared to draw many detailed inferences from scant social cues. No wonder virtually every god is made in the image of man. Boyer also examines the connection between religions and morality, and argues that

"Religion does not really support morality, it is people's moral intuitions that make religion plausible; religion does not explain misfortune, it is the way people explain misfortune that makes religion easier to acquire."

Boyer supports this type of claim by exploring the underlying templates that give rise to our intuitions. While there is clearly much more to investigate and to corroborate, the explanations that Boyer provides are surprisingly succinct and powerful; they will allow you to see things that have hitherto gone unnoticed because they are so obvious and automatic, such as our propensity to ascribe intentionality to inanimate objects (if only metaphorically), or to irrationally imbue ceremonies with great meaning and power. As Boyer amply demonstrates, these things escape our notice not because they are trivial, but because the cognitive mechanisms responsible for them are highly specialized and hidden from conscious inspection. We can catch the underlying mechanisms in the act only through cleverly designed experiments; introspection is all but useless.

There are a number of instances in which Boyer may be rightly criticized for telling "just so" stories -- that is, engaging in speculation that goes well beyond the evidence. Although this is often necessary when one is framing a new theory, Boyer occasionally neglects to note when we have left the realm of science and entered the realm of speculation. On balance, however, Boyer does a marvelous job of substantiating his assertions with findings from cognitive science and anthropology while managing to keep the discussion lively and engaging.

Religionists should be warned that Boyer does not even entertain the possibility that religions arise from some objective truth. While the astute reader will sense this immediately, Boyer does not state this plainly until page 48: "...people who think that we have religion because religion is TRUE... will find little here to support their views and in fact no discussion of these views." Although I personally have no quarrel with this stance, I would have been happier had Boyer made this disclosure on page 1. One gets the impression that this is left unsaid until page 48 because the author felt it was unimportant to address believers. One side effect of this attitude is that religionists will likely reject the book in toto, and quite vehemently at that. This is unfortunate because the book offers many fascinating insights into human cognition and it is quite conceivable that a religionist could happily agree that it helps to explain all OTHER religions, and the many (wrong-headed) sects within one's own religion.

I anticipate many strong objections to issue from believers. It will be interesting to follow this, provided they refrain from attacking a straw man. For instance, it would be all too easy to assert that Boyer is misguided, given that he has clearly never had a personal relationship with Jesus, or some such deity, implying that the objective reality of certain religious percepts is manifest to those who have had such experiences. Unfortunately, this type of attack would miss the mark by a considerable margin. What one needs to argue is why such "relationships" have any connection with objective reality, given that the human brain is so intrinsically biased toward social interaction that it will frequently perceive human (or supernatural) agency where none exists. In other words, the question is not WHETHER one has such perceptions and beliefs, but WHY. Religionists attribute these experiences to the actual existence of their respective deities, while Boyer and many others argue quite compellingly that they are simply normal epiphenomena of the brain.

If everyone can stay focused on that distinction, it will be a fascinating and lively debate. I have my bucket of popcorn ready.

Summary of Religion Explained

That gods and spirits are construed very much like persons is probably one of the best-known traits of religion. Indeed, the Greeks had already noticed that people create gods in their own image.... All this is familiar, indeed so familiar that for a long time anthropologists forgot that this propensity requires an explanation. Why then are gods and spirits so much like humans?

Peppering his study with examples from all over the world, particularly the Fang people of Africa, Boyer offers plenty of evidence for his theory that religious institutions exist to maintain particular threads of social integrity. Though he uses the tools of evolutionary psychology, he is more careful than most EP proponents to avoid ad hoc and circular arguments. Best of all, at least to those unmortified at the idea of examining religion critically, his theories are potentially testable. Even if he turns out to be dead wrong, at least Religion Explained offers a new and powerful framework for thinking about our spiritual lives. --Rob Lightner

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