Jay R. Feierman University of New Mexico Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (ret.)

1. The Biology of Religious Beliefs(A Sequel to The Biology of Religious Behavior)Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), Boston, Massachusetts, November, 2013 Jay R. Feierman University of New Mexico Clinical Professor of Psychiatry (ret.)

2. Beliefs, Believers, and BelievingReligious beliefs are the emphasis in this talk. They will be discussed from two perspectives: 1. the more psychological, outside and inside of minds 2. the more biological, outside and inside of brains.

3. Religious BeliefsOutside and Inside of Minds From a More Psychological Perspective • Outside-of-minds: • religious beliefs are information-laden, written, spoken, or implied declarations to others that one holds a religious proposition to be true. • Inside-of-minds: • considered from the 1st person, subjective perspective: religious beliefs are represented directly as consciously aware propositional thoughts or “self-talk” of unknown ontology about what one holds to be true. • considered from the 3rd person, objective perspective: religious beliefs, which are always information-laden, material (“physical”) structures, can’t exist in the immaterial mind. They can only be represented indirectly by their immaterial function or what they are doing, i.e., “believing.” So “beliefs” don’t occur in the mind but “believing” is something done in the mind.

4. Religious BeliefsOutside and Inside of Brains From a More Biological Perspective • Outside of-brains: • Considered from the 3rd person, objective perspective: religious beliefs are information-laden, written, spoken, or implied declarations to others that one holds a religious proposition to be true. • Inside of-brains: • Considered only from the 3rd person, objective perspective: religious beliefs are delineated quantities of cognitive-related information (but not in the form of linguistic, declarative propositions) that bias one’s behavioral movements -- used in generating writing, speech to others, or moving the body -- in predictable ways.

5. From a biological perspective, behavioral-biasing religious beliefs, outside or insideof brains, are composed of information, and information is. . • . . . always “physical or material,” meaning information has to exist in the ontological realm of matter/energy/space/time • . . . that which reduces uncertainty because if an individual’s behavior is biased in one particular way, that one way of behaving reduces the uncertainty as to how to behave by n -1, where n is the total number of available behavioral choices. • . . . a measure of order, e.g., the information in religious beliefs predicts forms [patterns] and/or functions of movements • . . . computable from the number of choices (n) in a given arrangement of matter or energy made to arrive at a particular arrangement among various possible ones (Information = log₂ 1/n)

6. From a biological perspective, how do behavioral-biasing, material or physical, information-laden religious-related beliefs get inside of brains? • Through DNA: Some of the delineated information with which specific, inside-of-brain religious-related beliefs are composed is acquired through DNA, such as the religion-wide belief to be submissive-like (lower-or-smaller-or-more vulnerable) in one’s non-vocal behavior in petitioning prayer. (Note: Pictures to follow on the next slide.) • Through Social Learning: Some of the delineated information with which specific inside-of brain religious beliefs are composed is acquired through culturally-sensitive social learning, such as learning which variation (kind) of the general, submissive-like theme to execute in the non-vocal aspect of petitioning prayer in one’s specific religion (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, or Islam). For example, when someone is asked, “Why is your posture kneeling with your forehead touching the floor when you pray?” the person might say, “This is how I was taught to pray.”

7. Type I LSV Religious Behavior: Non-Vocal Aspect of Petitioning Prayer(Make oneself-lower-or-smaller-or-more-vulnerable = LSV behavior.)

8. Type I LSV Religious Behavior: Non-Vocal Aspect of Petitioning Prayer(Makes oneself-lower-or-smaller-or-more-vulnerable = SLV behavior.)

9. More Type I, LSV Religious Behavior, Non-Vocal Aspect of Petitioning Prayer: “Hands Above the Head”

10. Why “Hands above the Head” is a Type I LSV Submissive Display in True Submission and Religion(Examples of make oneself-lower-or-smaller-or-more-vulnerable = LSV behavior.)

11. Thermodynamics of Inside-of-Brain Religious Beliefs(Why we have them. What their advantage is.) • It is a reasonable presumption that the development of an inside-of-brain religious belief is a high energy (glucose), nutrient (vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.), oxygen consuming, and heat generating, metabolic process. • It is a reasonable presumption that once acquired and developed, inside-of-brain religious beliefs should reduce the otherwise high metabolic requirements of brain used in cognition by biasing (influencing) behavior (movement) in response to specific classes of stimuli in predictable ways. • In the terminology of Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman’sThinking Fast and Slow (2011), and in reference to the pre-frontal lobe brain function of “deciding,” as in which of several options for behavior to execute, inside-of-brain religious beliefs convert the high energy-consuming and slow System 2 thinking to a lower energy-consuming and fast System 1 thinking, which “operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control” (p. 20).

12. Cognitive Efficiency of Religious Beliefs • Verner, M. et al. (2013). Cortical Oxygen consumption in mental arithmetic as a function of task difficulty: a near-infrared spectroscopy approach. Front. Human Neurosci. May 22;7-217. doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00217 “. . . more complex addition tasks led to higher oxygenation in all areas of interest (inferior frontal gyri, the middle frontal gyri, and the superior frontal gyri except in the left inferior frontal gyri)” • Imagine the following two different scenarios: • (1) the cortical oxygen consumption needs for a 6th grade elementary school student, who never memorized the multiplication tables, is asked to give the answers to the following three questions, asked out loud by the teacher: “what is 4 x 7? [pause for answer], what is 8 x 8? [pause for answer], and what is 7 x 9?” or • (2) the cortical oxygen consumption needs for another 6th grade elementary school student, who previously memorized the multiplication tables, is asked to give the answers to the same three questions, asked out loud by the teacher: “what is 4 x 7?[pause for answer], what is 8 x 8? [pause for answer], and what is 7 x 9?” • Inside-of-brain religious beliefs are analogous (i.e., have a similar function) to having the answers to the multiplication tables in one’s brain. The presence of behavioral-biasing information in brain reduces the cognitive-related metabolic requirements of brain and makes brain more efficient, effective, and faster in terms of information processing. • Question: Why is all this important? Answer: Brain is 3% of the average human body mass but utilizes 20% of the oxygen requirements of the body

13. Implications and Meanings of Honestly Using (or Implying) the Word“Belief” in Religion-Related Speech or Writing From a More Psychological Perspective Referenced to Truth From a More Biological Perspective Referenced to Behavior (movement) Belief = This (what I hold to be true) will be reflected in how I will most likely behave • Belief = This (my belief) is what I hold to be true

14. Advantages of Referencing the Propositions of Outside-of-Brain Religious Beliefs to Behavior Rather than to Truth • Many spoken, written or implied propositions in outside-of-brain religious beliefs are, for good reasons, partially counter-intuitive and partially counter-factual, i.e. not completely truthful. • Many of the propositions in outside-of-brain religious beliefs are justified as true by religion-specific: acts of revelation, arguments of authority, acts of faith, subjective religious experiences, “historical” (e.g., sacred scripture) evidence, etc. • Some of the above methods of justifying the propositions in outside-of-brain religious beliefs as true knowledge produce “truths” that are religion-specific and therefore divisive across religions. Some religion-specific “truths” are found using means beyond that which are used in philosophy and science. • Whether or not the proposition in a spoken, written or implied outside-of-brain religious belief can be “adjusted to reality” or is true and therefore qualify as true knowledge is irrelevant to its biological function, which is to explain to self and others, especially others in one’s in-group, why one’s religiously motivated behaviors (movements) are or will be biased in culturally-influenced and predictable ways. As an example, saying, “I believe in Allah” predicts one’s posture in prayer. • A declared propositional outside-of-brain religious belief can always be justified as useful, not as true, if the behavioral (movement) implications in the declared linguistic proposition, such as “My belief in the words attributed to Jesus in the Bible guides my life,” actually occur.

15. Other Aspects of Religious Beliefs Outside and Inside of Brains Not Covered in This Talk • The role of the emotions • The updating of the information in religious beliefs, both outside and inside of brains, through nonmonotonic reasoning and Bayesian inference • The interdependencies among different religious and non-religious beliefs • Relationship of religious beliefs to consciousness • Delusional religious beliefs in psychiatrically ill people • Religious disbelief, agnosticism and atheism • Relationship to the detection of deception as when someone says, “I believe p,” but they really don’t

16. The Nicene CreedI believein one God,the Father almighty,maker of heaven and earth,of all things visible and invisible.I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,the Only Begotten Son of God,born of the Father before all ages.God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;through him all things were made.For us men and for our salvationhe came down from heaven,and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,and became man.For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,he suffered death and was buried,and rose again on the third dayin accordance with the Scriptures.He ascended into heavenand is seated at the right hand of the Father.He will come again in gloryto judge the living and the deadand his kingdom will have no end.I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the Father and the Son,who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,who has spoken through the prophets.I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sinsand I look forward to the resurrection of the deadand the life of the world to come. Amen.

17. The Apostles CreedI believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

18. The End