1 / 10

Intuitive theists? Agency and the concept of God

Intuitive theists? Agency and the concept of God . James A. Van Slyke. Concepts of Agency. Primary component of God Concept: Agency Detection Stewart Guthrie (1993) Evolutionary adaptation to detect agents Predators or prey Default assumption: assume something is an agent

ozzie
Download Presentation

Intuitive theists? Agency and the concept of God

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Intuitive theists? Agency and the concept of God James A. Van Slyke

  2. Concepts of Agency • Primary component of God Concept: Agency Detection • Stewart Guthrie (1993) • Evolutionary adaptation to detect agents • Predators or prey • Default assumption: assume something is an agent • Bump in the night is a burglar, not a tree • We overestimate the existence of agents

  3. Classic study of Agency • Fritz Heider and Mary-Ann Simmel (1944) • What happens when persons view a movie about geometrical shapes? • Most persons tend to attribute some form of agency or personhood to the shapes • Assume that the shapes had intentions or purposes • Assume that the big triangle is “mean” or picking on the little triangle • Shapes are chasing each other

  4. Theory of Mind • Assume intentions, goals and forms of agency in other persons • These assumptions are not limited to person, but engage a variety of different objects • Children’s cartoons • Computers • Weather

  5. Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD) • Justin Barrett • EP Cognitive Module • Related to ToM • Adaptive to move rather than wait • Tend to assume agents are everywhere • Makes it very easy to believe in God without a lot of theological training

  6. Promiscuous Teleology Teleology – belief that something is caused by someone with intentions rather than natural or “blind” causes Children prefer explanations based on teleology vs. natural or scientific explanations Seems to be a cognitive bias towards these types of explanations

  7. Designing Agent Bias • Keleman & DiYanni (2005) • 6 to 7 year old British Children • Did someone or something (X) or did it just happen • (X1) Make the first mountain? (over 50% attribute this to someone) • (X2) Make the first monkey? (over 73% attributed this to someone) • Children’s bias may indicate a cognitive tendency towards agency

  8. Who designed the Natural world? • Margaret Evans • Children tend to favor creationist accounts over evolutionary accounts • Children younger than ten • Even if their parents and teachers endorsed evolution

  9. HADD and ToM • False Belief Task (Box of crackers) • Prior to age 4 or 5 assume similar cognitive awareness • If I know there are pencils everyone else does too • After 5 understand differences in cognitive states • What about a supernatural agent? (i.e. God) • Developmentally assume ‘supernatural’ abilities for everyone, then parse it down • Even after age 5, children assume God would not be fooled

  10. Immortality Bias? • Emily Reed Burdett • 66 Israeli children (2 to 5 years) • Questions • Could friend/mother/God Die? • Can God be killed? • All children distinguished between God and friend/mother • Even youngest children were able to consistently make the distinction • God could not be killed • Split over whether parents and friends could be killed • Understood God’s immortality before understanding human morality

More Related