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virus: Fwd: eSkeptic: Daniel Dennett - Believing in Belief
« on: 2006-02-23 15:14:12 » |
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Shermer <skepticssociety@skeptic.com>
Date: Feb 23, 2006 1:00 AM
Subject: eSkeptic: Daniel Dennett - Believing in Belief
eSkeptic: the email newsletter of the Skeptics Society Thursday, February
23rd, 2006 | ISSN 1556-5696
------------------------------
[image: Breaking the Spell - re-coloured closeup of book cover]
detail from *Breaking the Spell* book cover (re-coloured)
lecture reminder=85 *Breaking The Spell*
Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
with Dr. Daniel Dennett
Sunday, February 26th, 2pm
Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech
One of the greatest thinkers of our age tackles one of the most important
questions of our time: why people believe in God and how religion shapes ou=
r
lives and our future. In this lecture, based on his new book of the same
title, Dr. Dennett shows that for the vast majority of people there is
nothing more important than religion. It is an integral part of their
marriage, child rearing, and community. Dennett takes a hard look at this
phenomenon and asks: Where does our devotion to God come from and what
purpose does it serve? Is religion a blind evolutionary compulsion or a
rational choice? In a spirited investigation that ranges widely through
history, philosophy, and psychology, Dennett explores how organized religio=
n
evolved from folk beliefs and why it is such a potent force today. Deftly
and lucidly, he contends that the "belief in belief" has fogged any attempt
to rationally consider the existence of God and the relationship between
divinity and human need.
Dr. Dennett is a professor and director of the Center for Cognitive Studies
at Tufts University, and the author of the highly acclaimed *Darwin's
Dangerous Idea*, *Consciousness Explained*, and *Freedom Evolves*.
READ more about our Caltech lectures
><http://www.skeptic.com/lectures_and_events/>
------------------------------
[image: Daniel C. Dennett photo]
In this week's *eSkeptic*, Michael Shermer reviews Daniel C. Dennett's book
*Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural
Phenomenon.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/067003472X/skepticcom-20=
/104-6491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
* (Viking, 2006, ISBN 067003472X)
You might also want to check out Dennett's lecture *Freedom Evolves: Free
Will, Determinism, and Evolution*, part of the Skeptics Distinguished
Lectures Series at Caltech. AVAILABLE on DVD, VHS, CD, and audio
cassette ><http://www.skeptic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=3DPROD&Stor=
e_Code=3DSS&Product_Code=3Dav119>
------------------------------
Believing in Belief
a book review by Michael Shermer
In a 1997 episode of the animated television series *The Simpsons*, Lisa
Simpson discovers a fossil angel. Suspecting a hoax, she takes a piece of
the fossil to the natural history museum where Harvard paleontologist
Stephen Jay Gould (playing himself) analyzes it. The age-old conflict
between science and religion then plays out in this *ne plus ultra* of pop
culture. The town evangelical Ned Flanders bemoans: "Science is like a
blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends." When Gould
announces that the test results are "inconclusive," Reverend Lovejoy boasts=
:
"Well, it appears science has failed again, in front of overwhelming
religious evidence." Marge counsels Lisa's skepticism with motherly wisdom:
"There has to be more to life than just what we see Lisa. Everyone needs
something to believe in." Lisa's rejoinder is classic skepticism: "It's not
that I don't have a spiritual side. I just find it hard to believe there's =
a
dead angel hanging in our garage." The Scopes-like trial that ensues ends
when the judge issues a restraining order: "Religion must stay 500 yards
from science at all times."
This is, in fact, Gould's conciliatory solution he called NOMA
(Non-Overlapping Magisteria)1 <#10995ee3413fec97_note01>, and it is the
primary target of Tufts University philosopher Daniel C. Dennett in his
latest book, *Breaking the Spell*. All restraining orders are off, as
Dennett calls for "a forthright, scientific, no-holds-barred investigation
of religion as one natural phenomenon among many." The spell to be broken i=
s
the taboo that science will render incapable "the life-enriching enchantmen=
t
of religion itself."
So sensitive is he to the potential reaction on the part of his readers
(which Dennett maintains is the general public, over 90 percent of which
believe in God) that the first 55 pages of the book are an apologia for why
it is okay for religion to be studied scientifically. Readers familiar with
such publications as *The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* can
skim this section, since the field has been around for over a century. My
concern is that religious adherents will take offense at his rationale
before they get to the heart of the book, where Dennett really shines. In
one passage, for example, he tells believers that their repugnance to
science is misdirected, but admits that his attempt to convince them
otherwise "is a daunting task, like trying to persuade your friend with the
cancer symptoms that she really ought to see a doctor now, since her anxiet=
y
may be misplaced and the sooner she learns that the sooner she can get on
with her life, and if she does have cancer, timely intervention may make al=
l
the difference." The deeply devout will not take kindly to their beliefs
(about either science or religion) being equated with cancer. Or to
cigarettes, as in this subsequent passage: "Sure, religion saves lives. So
does tobacco =97 ask those GIs for whom tobacco was an even greater comfort
than religion during World War II, the Korean War, and Vietnam."
*Breaking the Spell* is really written for scientists and scholars who have
thought little on the subject of religion as a natural phenomenon. Dennett'=
s
starting point is the "rational choice" theory of religion, proffered by
sociologist Rodney Stark and his colleagues, which holds that the beliefs,
rituals, customs, commitments, and sacrifices associated with religion are
best understood as a form of exchange between believers and gods or God.
Where resources and rewards are scarce (e.g., rain for crops) or nonexisten=
t
(e.g., immortality) through secular sources, then religion steps in to act
as the exchange intermediary.2 <#10995ee3413fec97_note02> To an evolutionis=
t
like Dennett, such exchanges demand that we look for a deeper causal vector=
:
Any such regular expenditure of time and energy has to be balanced by
something of 'value' obtained, and the ultimate measure of evolutionary
'value' is *fitness*: the capacity to replicate more successfully than the
competition does.
What is the value of religion to evolutionary fitness? In two books, I hav=
e
outlined at least four such values:
1. mythmaking to explain apparently inexplicable phenomena in the
world,
2. redemption (forgiveness in this life) and resurrection (immortality
in the next life),
3. morality (reinforcement of pro-social behavior and punishment of
anti-social behavior), and
4. sociality (encouragement of within-group amity and between-group
enmity).3 <#10995ee3413fec97_note03>
Do such values explain religion? We don't know yet, Dennett admits, but th=
e
rest of his book presents a plausible explanation that I summarize as
follows.
Humans have brains that are big enough to be both self-aware and aware that
others are self-aware. This "theory of mind," or what Dennett calls
"adopting the intentional stance," leads to a "hyperactive agent detection
device" (HADD) that not only alerts us to real dangers, such as poisonous
snakes, but also generates false positives, such as believing that rocks an=
d
trees are imbued with intentional minds, or spirits. "The memorable nymphs
and fairies and goblins and demons that crowd the mythologies of every
people are the imaginative offspring of a hyperactive habit of finding
agency wherever anything puzzles or frightens us." This is animism that, in
the well-known historical sequence, leads to polytheism and, eventually,
monotheism. In other words, God is a false positive generated by our HADD.
Around these animistic entities our ancestors created folk religions, which=
,
between the Neolithic revolution and the rise of cities, evolved into the
organized religions we recognize today. During this transition there was
competition among the countless god memes (each of whom were believed to
control some tiny part of the world), out of which emerged the winner: a
single God meme believed to control everything. Concomitant with God's
triumph was a corresponding *belief in belief* =97 not just belief in God, =
but
belief in belief in God. This, says Dennett, was the coup de gr=E1ce: relig=
ion
no longer had to depend on uniformity of belief, only uniformity of *
professing* belief.
Through his many provocative books4 <#10995ee3413fec97_note04> Dan Dennett
has emerged as the *advocatus diablos* of science, and his *belief in belie=
f
* concept is his most dangerous idea to date. It is dangerous because it is
a two-edged sword that cuts for and against. On the one side, it not only
grants believers some elbow room for doubt (as long as you still believe in
belief in God), it allows atheists like myself (and Dennett) to profess tha=
t
I believe in God; that is, I believe in the God that exists in the minds of
people who themselves believe in the existence of an omniscient and
omnipotent deity. That God is so powerful that He can get believers to bomb
abortion clinics and fly planes into buildings.
On the flip side, perspicacious believers may perceive that an ontological
trap is being set: belief in belief implies that the God in your head
doesn't actually exist. I predict that in the competitive memescape that is
the human mind, the belief in God meme will beat out the belief in belief
meme, as much as I would like to believe otherwise.
References & Notes
1. Gould, Stephen Jay. 1999. *Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in
the Fullness of
Life.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034545040X/skepticcom-20/104-6=
491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
* New York: Ballentine.
2. Stark, R. and W. S. Bainbridge. 1987. *A Theory of
Religion.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813523303/skepticcom-20/1=
04-6491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
* New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press; Stark, R. 1997. *Religion=
,
Deviance, and Social
Control.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0415915295/skepticcom-20/10=
4-6491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
* New York: Routledge; Stark, R. and R. Finke. 2000. *Acts of Faith:
Explaining the Human Side of
Religion.<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0520222024/skepticcom-20/1=
04-6491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
*Berkeley: University of California Press.
3. Shermer, Michael. 2004. *The Science of Good and
Evil<http://www.skeptic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=3DPROD&Store_Code=
=3DSS&Product_Code=3Db090PB>
*. New York: Henry Holt; Shermer, Michael. 2000. *How We Believe:
Science, Skepticism, and the Search for
God.<http://www.skeptic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=3DPROD&Store_Code=
=3DSS&Product_Code=3Db063PB>
* New York: Henry Holt.
4. Dennett, D. 1991. *Consciousness
Explained<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0316180661/skepticcom-20/1=
04-6491725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
*. New York: Little Brown; Dennett, D. 1995. *Darwin's Dangerous
Idea<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/068482471X/skepticcom-20/104-64=
91725-8322313?creative=3D125581&camp=3D2321&link_code=3Das1%22>
*. New York: Simon and Schuster; Dennett, D. 2003. *Freedom
Evolves<http://www.skeptic.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=3DPROD&Store_C=
ode=3DSS&Product_Code=3Dav119>
*. New York: Viking.
------------------------------
Skeptics at the Technology,
Entertainment & Design Conference
February 22nd =96 25th
Monterey, California
www.ted.com
Skeptics Society Director Michael Shermer joins speakers including Al Gore,
Daniel Dennett, Peter Gabriel, Cameron Sinclair, Julia Sweeney, and more
than 800 thought-leaders, movers and shakers for four days of learning,
laughter and inspiration at this *sold-out*, invitation-only conference.
------------------------------
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