Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity (Van Leeuwen Neil)(Pevná vazba) - diskuze

To understand the nature of religious belief, we must look at how our minds process the world of imagination and make-believe. We often assume that religious beliefs are no different in kind from ordinary factual beliefs--that believing in the existence of God or of supernatural entities that hear our prayers is akin to believing that May comes before June. Neil Van Leeuwen shows that, in fact, these two forms of belief are strikingly different. Our brains do not process religious beliefs like they do beliefs concerning mundane reality; instead, empirical findings show that religious beliefs function like the imaginings that guide make-believe play. Van Leeuwen argues that religious belief--which he terms religious "credence"--is best understood as a form of imagination that people use to define the identity of their group and express the values they hold sacred. When
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