Category Archives: Cognitive Science and Christianity

From Your Mouth to God’s Ear—How We Jump from Wishing to Believing

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Part 2 of a 7-Part Series – Why People Believe in Miracles and Other Kinds of Magic Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. –Arthur C. Clarke (Read Part 1 here.) Human beings have told stories about miracles and … Continue reading

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Miracles are Magic by Another Name

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Part 1 of a 7-Part Series — Why People Believe in Miracles and Other Kinds of Magic If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a … Continue reading

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Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 4: Religion – Symbiote or Parasite?

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Missed Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3?   Given that our world is plagued by religious conflict and cruelties, some antitheists have suggested that religion as a whole is a form of pathology. But as worried and angry as we … Continue reading

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Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 3: The Human Mind as a Host for Contagious Ideas

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Missed Part 1 or Part 2? I like to think that I am the master of my thoughts—that I generate and control them and that they serve my own purposes. But that is only one way to look at things. It … Continue reading

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Can Bacteria Help Us Understand Religion? Part 2: Why We Pass on False Ideas

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Missed Part 1?  Click here. When my brother David was three, he learned how to pee standing up. He was so excited, that the next time he saw sister Kathy, age twenty, heading for the bathroom, he ran after her … Continue reading

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