There was so much talk of “religion-shaped holes” in the brain in those comments! Shouldn’t it be pretty obvious to people who are aware of the “meme” concept that religions are brain-hole shaped and not the other way around?
Of course it’s ok if a rocket-ship fills a certain brain-hole in a similar way the religion does—rocket ships are benign. It’s naming one or several of those holes “religion-shaped” that seems to have a dark-artsy kind of effect and turn us all stupid.
Actually we have theory-of-mind shaped holes in the brain. I don’t have an iPhone, and I haven’t seen a live demonstration of the Siri app yet, but the commercials and videos about Siri I’ve seen on YouTube show that it doesn’t take much to trick the theory of mind into treating Siri as a person.
Gods make me think of Siri-like apps. People attribute the theory of mind to their “god apps,” and they try to communicate with these apps through worship, prayer, the study of obscure scriptures and the infliction of self-harm, as David Hume describes in my post below.
I believe that and agree that it’s gotta be a major factor in driving god-belief and other types of animism (it’s one of the brain-holes I’m talking about). Yet, religion seems to be a superset—and sometimes a large one—of god-belief. There’s seemingly more to explain. There are likely several other brain-holes involved here.
There was so much talk of “religion-shaped holes” in the brain in those comments! Shouldn’t it be pretty obvious to people who are aware of the “meme” concept that religions are brain-hole shaped and not the other way around?
Of course it’s ok if a rocket-ship fills a certain brain-hole in a similar way the religion does—rocket ships are benign. It’s naming one or several of those holes “religion-shaped” that seems to have a dark-artsy kind of effect and turn us all stupid.
Actually we have theory-of-mind shaped holes in the brain. I don’t have an iPhone, and I haven’t seen a live demonstration of the Siri app yet, but the commercials and videos about Siri I’ve seen on YouTube show that it doesn’t take much to trick the theory of mind into treating Siri as a person.
Gods make me think of Siri-like apps. People attribute the theory of mind to their “god apps,” and they try to communicate with these apps through worship, prayer, the study of obscure scriptures and the infliction of self-harm, as David Hume describes in my post below.
I believe that and agree that it’s gotta be a major factor in driving god-belief and other types of animism (it’s one of the brain-holes I’m talking about). Yet, religion seems to be a superset—and sometimes a large one—of god-belief. There’s seemingly more to explain. There are likely several other brain-holes involved here.