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

1. The Biology of Religious Beliefs(A Sequel to The Biology of Religious Behavior)Version 2.0, Draft for Comments for a paper to be presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), Boston, Massachusetts, November, 2013 Jay R. Feierman University of New Mexico (Retired Clinical Professor of Psychiatry)

2. Beliefs, Believers, and Believing(Only Religious Beliefs Will Be Covered in this Talk)

3. Religious BeliefsOutside and Inside of Minds From an Immaterial, Psychological Perspective • Outside-of-minds (i.e., spoken, written, or implied) religious beliefs, if one is being honest, are communicative declarations to self and others that one is holding a proposition to be true • Inside of-minds religious beliefs are immaterial, psychological, mental states (Merriam Webster Dictionary, etc.) in which immaterial, mental propositions, having to do with religion, are held to be true • From a representationalism perspective, the mental states regarding religious beliefs are considered immaterial (i.e., conceptual) representations of the out-of-mind (i.e., spoken, written, or implied) religious-related beliefs :

4. Religious BeliefsOutside and Inside of Brains From a Material, Biological Perspective • Outside of-brains (i.e., spoken, written, or implied) religious beliefs, if one is being honest, are communicative declarations to self and others that one’s behavioral movements (used in generating speech or writing or moving the whole body) will probably be biased in predictable ways, i.e., “What I say I believe will probably predict how I will behave.” • Inside of-brains religious beliefs are delineated, quantities of information that bias (influence) one’s behavioral movements (used in generating speech or writing or moving the whole body) in predictable ways. • From a dispositionalism perspective the religious beliefs in brain are considered material entities that (pre)dispose one’s religiously-influenced behavioral movements (used in generating speech or writing or moving the whole body) to be biased in predictable ways

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

6. Advantages of Referencing Religious Beliefs to Behavior (movement) Rather than to Truth • Many spoken, written or implied religious beliefs are, for good reasons, partially counter-intuitive and partially counter-factual anyway, i.e. not completely truthful. • Religious beliefsare justified as true by religion-specific acts of revelation, religion-specific arguments of authority, and religion-specific acts of faith. • All of the above methods of justifying religious beliefs as true knowledge are divisive across religions and not universally accepted means of justifying any beliefs as true knowledge in philosophy or science. • Whether or not a spoken, written or implied religious belief can be justified as true and qualify as knowledge is totally 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 biased in culturally-influenced and predictable ways, e.g., “I believe in Allah” predicts one’s posture in prayer.

7. From a biological perspective, behavioral-biasing religious beliefs, outside or insideof brains, are composed of information, and information is. . • . . . always “physical,” meaning information has to exist in the ontological realm of matter/energy/space/time • . . . that which reduces uncertainty (if an individual’s behavior is biased to be executed 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 ofmovements) • . . . computable from the number of choices (n) in a given arrangement of matter or energy made to arrive at a particular arrangement among all equally possible ones (Information = log₂ 1/n)

8. From a biological perspective, how are religious-related beliefs acquired and then activated in brains? • Some of the delineated information with which specific, religious-related beliefs are composed isacquired mainly through DNA, such as the religion-wide belief to be submissive-like in one’s behavior in petitioning prayer. • Some of the information with which religion-related beliefs are composed is acquired mainly by culturally-sensitive, individual or social learning, such as learning which variation (kind) of the general, submissive-like theme to execute in petitioning prayer in one’s specific religion (e.g., Judaism, Christianity, or Islam). • It is a reasonable presumption that the acquisition of a religious belief by brain is an energy consuming (endothermic) process. • It is a reasonable presumption that once acquired, religious beliefs should reduce the otherwise high energy requirements of brain used in cognition by biasing (influencing) behavior (movement) in response to specific classes of stimuli in predetermined and predictable ways.

9. Religious Beliefs: Causes and Effects • Do people engage in religious rituals because of their verbalized religious beliefs? • Or, are people’s verbalized religious beliefs a way of explaining to self and others their religious rituals?

10. Religious Beliefs: Causes and Effects • Do people pray in culturally-influenced ways because of what they say they believe? • Or, do people say what they believe as a explanation to self and others for why they pray in culturally-influenced ways?

11. The Most Likely Temporal Sequence That Activates a Previously-Acquired Religious Belief That Is Already in Brain • External or internal physical stimulus to brain > brain religious belief “activated” > behavior (movement) of the body (in speech, writing or the whole body) is biased (influenced) in pre-determined and predictable way> conscious awareness of how one’s behavior (movement) is biased in a pre-determined and predictable way > the linguistic proposition with which the religious belief is stated, often as “self-talk,” comesinto one’s conscious awareness > one has the illusion that the conscious awareness of the words composing one’s religious belief caused the behavior, rather than being triggered by the behavior

12. The Sequence of Events from the Last Slide Said Somewhat Differently In response to a member of a stimulus class, a delineated quantity of information in brain (i.e., a “brain-belief”) associated with that stimulus class biases one’s behavior (movement) in a predictable way. One subsequently becomes consciously aware of the out of brain verbal proposition associated with the belief. One has the illusion that the verbal proposition associated with the belief, as in “self talk,” caused the behavior (movement) associated with the belief, as the events take place only milliseconds apart

13. Other Aspects of Religious Beliefs Outside and Inside of Brains Not Covered in This Talk • The role of the emotions • The role of religious beliefs in reasoning and decision making • The updating of information in religious beliefs through nonmonotonic reasoning and Bayesian inference • The interactions and dependencies among different religious and non-religious beliefs • Relationship of religious beliefs to consciousness, attitudes, desires, and ideas • 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 • How beliefs in general and religious beliefs in particular are affected by natural selection at the biological and cultural levels

14. The Nicene CreedI believe in 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.

15. 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.

16. The EndSpecial thanks to Michael T. McGuire, whose book, Believing, has just been published by Prometheus Press. He and I have interchanged ideas so much about beliefs and believing over the past few years that it is difficult to know which ideas are his and which are mine. Any errors in this presentation are mine alone.Special thanks also to Malcolm Dean, who at a long lunch in Hawaii at the Evolution of Religion Conference in January, 2007, introduced me to the concept of “cognitive thermodynamics,” which has implications for the brain’s beliefs being “physical” entities of information.