New item in the Archive for Religion and Cognition:


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Author(s): Anders Lisdorf
Title: What\'s HIDD\'n in the HADD? - A Cognitive Conjuring Trick?
Category: none
Length: 14
Keywords: HADD, Theory of Mind, Superhuman Agents, Gods

Abstract: The consensus in the cognitive study of religion is that some sort of
hyperactive agency detection in the human mind is responsible for the origin and
spread of beliefs in superhuman agents such as gods, spirits and ancestors among
human populations. While it is expressed differently in different authors, they
all agree that some sort of hyperactive agency detection is a basic function of
human cognition, which is what Justin Barrett has called the Hyperactive Agency
Detection Device or HADD. But what is it? And isn’t it a bit much to ask
of one cognitive function to be the origin of religious belief? Problems arise
when we begin to consider the neural basis: It is not there, or more precisely
it doesn’t work that way. Like the magician pulling rabbits from the hat
this explanation may be a “self”-conjuring trick, only for us the
hat is a HADD and the rabbits are superhuman agents (no reference to
were-rabbits intended). This paper will try to point to a more parsimonious
explanation.

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