Cognitive mechanisms for the evolution of religious thought

Abstract

The reasons behind the cultural persistence of religious beliefs throughout human history and prehistory still generate unanswered questions requiring scientific explanations. Within the framework of the cognitive science of religion, this article reviews experimental evidence supporting human predisposition for religious thinking and focuses on the hypothesis that a reason why religious beliefs are successful is their minimal counterintuitiveness. According to this hypothesis, religious concepts or stories would be characterized by containing only a small number of world-knowledge violations, which attracts attention while improving memorizability. We conclude this review by summarizing recent findings from our group using brain electrical activity and delving further into these questions. Our research suggests parallels between the natural tendency of the human cognitive system to use metaphors and the minimal counterintuitiveness of religious beliefs.

Keywords: ERPs; N400; counterintuitions; metaphors; religion.