PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 11, 2024

THE BELIEVING BRAIN (Part I)

Michael Shermer has written a most interesting book entitled The Believing Brain (Henry Holt and Company, LLC, New York, 2011).  The subtitle is “How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths.”  Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and writes a monthly column for Scientific America.

For Shermer as the brain digests sensory data it attempts to look for and find patterns (Chapter 4).  It then infuses these patterns with meaning, intention, and agency (Chapter 5).  Once the brain has hit upon a system of patterns and agency – beliefs – it tends to look for other data which will support them.  These beliefs are created in the “context of environments created by family, friends, colleagues, culture and society at large.” (p. 5)

Unfortunately, very often the brain gets it wrong.  On the one hand it can misunderstand data, thinking it is one thing when in fact it is something quite different.  On the other hand the brain can find patterns where none actually exists.  The events were simply random.  Thus, the problem is to develop  beliefs which are as close to actual reality as possible.

After discussing the biology of the believing brain, Michael turns to belief in things unseen.  The areas of concern are afterlife, God, aliens, and conspiracies.   In his discussion of belief in God Shermer makes a distinction between the content of what one says one believes and how one actually acts.  Behaviorally no one is an agnostic (a person who says they do not know if God exists or not).  “When we act in the world, we act as if there is a God or as if there is not God, so by default we must make a choice, if not intellectually then at least behaviorally.” (p. 176)

Michael’s observation reminds me of a prayer that one of my fellow pastors was said to have offered when he placed the morning offering on the altar.  “Lord, in spite of all we say and do here is what we really thing of you.”

The final section of The Believing Brain has to do with things seen.  Shermer first turns to politics.  Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans have basic belief systems that seem to be quite different.  Each seeks data to support their own particular systems and interpret all new data through their present and existing understandings of patterns and agency.  To bridge the gap Michael suggests a Realistic Vision of human nature.  (p. 246-248)

Next Shermer turns to how all of us go about looking for confirmation for what we already believe.  We are biased in our collection and evaluation of data.  Michael looks at the following such biases: confirmation, hindsight, self-justification, attribution, sunk-coat, status quo, endowment effect, framing effects, anchoring, availability heuristic, representative, and inattentional blindness.  As Jesus pointed out, the problem is that it is always easier to identify the biases in another person’s life than it is in our own.

In this article I have only been able to give the briefest outline of all that is contained in Michael Shermer’s  The Believing Brain.  Next week I would like to focus on his Epilogue where Michael deals with the scientific method.  This week I would like to close with one of the book’s opening illustrations.

Shermer begins his discussion of the biology of the brain by talking about a hominid that walked the savanna of an African valley three million years ago.  He hears a noise in the grass.  Is it just the wind or a dangerous predator?  A proper understanding of the incoming data is essential for survival.  At a basic level the brain seeks patterns and agency simply to survive.  Once this has been accomplished it progresses to looking for something more.  In evaluating belief systems it would seem to me we would do well to ask ourselves are they helping us survive.  If so, are they offering us something more.

(This article was originally published September 11, 2011.  Comments may be sent to davidh15503@embarqmail.com.)