Cognitive Thrift 57 – Prayer
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Cognitive Thrift
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/02/08
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: It depends on the belief. For instance, people pray believe they truly believe prayer works. Many people pray for many things.
Rick Rosner: Some beliefs provide spiritual solace. There might be a little evolutionary pressure for people to feel good about being human in the world because the realistic view that we’re evolution’s bitches.
Our behaviors are driven evolution, and then we get old and then we die might be depressing to a lot of people without beliefs systems and/or without the ability to ignore what might be considered the sadness of every human’s situation.
Jacobsen: It goes against part of what you said before. That prayer and other things are associated with larger belief systems and those can take a large amount of cognitive capacity.
Rosner: I don’t think they take a large amount unless you’re a religious – you can live your life according to religious principles, but we have enough slack as a successful species that you can have this belief system that might have you acting counter to your best interest numerous times a day.
Maybe behaving less ruthlessly than you would, in sticking to religious principles when those aren’t helpful, we’ve got enough slack that people can afford doing that.
Plus, if you’re part of a religion and that religion is the dominant culture in your society, that religion can be helpful, but I find nothing about religion or non-sense beliefs to have much bearing on our brains.
That we use our brains to pretty much near their capacity if you can even define the capacity of a brain and that we’re always reasonably close to screwing up.
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