X-Message-Number: 22194 Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 09:33:13 -0400 From: Keith Henson <> Subject: Cognitive science (was Freedom of Religion) David Stodolsky wrote: (Keith Henson) > > I strongly suggest that anyone who is interested in either defending > > against religion or making one up should get a copy of Pascal Boyer's > > _Religion Explained_ and read it through a few times, maybe delve into > > some > > of the massive cites he provides. > >http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/boyer.html > >This review suggests that reading this book is likely to be a waste of >time. I don't see how you could get this from the review. Here is some of it. "This book is a milestone on the road to a new behavioral understanding of religion, basing itself on what has come to be known as cognitive anthropology, and pointedly ignoring much work done over the past one hundred years in the behavioral study of religion and in the psychological anthropology of religion. The author wishes to challenge accepted wisdom and displays a contrarian spirit. No mention is made in this book of Freud, Durkheim, Wallace, La Barre, or Malinowski. We are in Year I of the Cognitive Anthropology Revolution and the Old Regime has to be erased from memory. What are the benefits, and costs, of this radical approach? "The clearest virtue of this book is that of dealing with the real thing. Even today, most scholarly work on religion consists of apologetics in one form or another, and we are deluged by offers of grants to study spirituality or teach religion and science . This all serves to make us forget that religion is a collection of fantasies about spirits, and Boyer indeed aims to teach us about the world of the spirits in the grand tradition of the Enlightenment. Any general introduction to the world of the spirits must be ambitious because it hasn t been done and also because it has been done intuitively by all of us. "The framework is cognitive-evolutionary and assumes that the brain is a machine operating according to rules developed through evolution. Religion is about the existence and causal powers of non-observable entities and agencies (p. 8), and is made up of a limited catalogue of possible supernatural beliefs (p. 11). This is a good starting point. This world of the imagination contains serious religious ideas, as well as ideas about Santa Claus, witchcraft and various popular magical practices. Psychologically, they are produced by the same processes. snip "Despite its limitations, this book is a first-rate attempt to move the study of religion in the direction desperately needed now more than ever." >Boyer seem to be unaware of recent developments in anthropology and >psychology. A better source: > >ernestbecker.org Hmm. They pitch: ************* Death and Denial: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Legacy of Ernest Becker by Daniel Liechty US List Price: USD $66.95 From Book News, Inc. Psychological anthropologist Becker's theory of Generative Death Anxiety explores how the biological and evolutionary constant of death and human awareness of it manifests in a variety of cultural and social environments. Contributors offer 25 psychological, psychotherapeutic, social scientific, philosophical, and theological reflections on it and its implications. There is no subject index.Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR About the Author DANIEL LIECHTY is Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Illinois State University and a licensed clinical social worker specializing in issues related to grief, loss, and death. *********** The list "psychological, psychotherapeutic, social scientific, philosophical, and theological" sets off warning signals to the engineer in me. The Amazon reviews of Denial of Death are interesting to read. (I.e., they read as if they were written by cult members.) I searched Google for "Ernest Becker" cryonics to see what he had said or what cross connections there might be. There were only 6 listings, one in a footnote by Jaron Lanier. "Certainly the fear of death has been one of the greatest driving forces in the history of thought and in the formation of the character of civilization, and yet it is under-acknowledged. The great book on the subject, The Denial of Death, by Ernest Becker (1973), deserves a reconsideration. Even as the psychoanalytic tradition seems to be on the wane, this book holds up remarkably well." The last one http://www.cofe.org.uk/html/body_humanity_-_our_need.html is by the Church of England. The web site indicated that the late Becker has somewhat of a fan club. But I really doubt we are going to see much support for cryonics from this direction, or even much insight into understanding why cryonics does so poorly in the marketplace of ideas. Keith Henson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=22194