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

1. The Biology of Religious BeliefsVersion 1.0, 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. What is a Belief (ontologically)? .

3. Beliefs in Philosophy and Psychology • . . . are propositional mental-state attitudes by which something is taken to be the case or regarded as true (i.e., “that which is held to be true”) • . . . have representations with the same propositional (P) content in one’s mind • . . . are non-physical concepts that do not exist in the material world of matter, energy, space and time.

4. How Would the Biology of Beliefs Differ from the Philosophy and Psychology of Beliefs?

5. From a biological perspective, beliefs are composed of information and information is. . . • . . . “physical,” meaning information has to exist in the ontological realm of matter/energy/space/time • . . . that which reduces uncertainty. • . . . a measure of order • . . . computable from the number of choices in a given arrangement of matter or energy made to arrive at a particular arrangement among all equally possible ones (I = log₂ 1/N)

6. The Biology of Beliefs • Because beliefs are composed of information, they are patterns of matter or energy either in the physical brain or as represented in spoken or written language as the words “belief” or “believe.” • Only beliefs in the brain can bias behavior (i.e., move the body) in a predictable way. • However, “believing,” which is what beliefs do, is a functional concept that can be considered a non-material entity in the non-material human mind. • Mental “believing” can not cause the body to move!

7. When people say things such as “I believe P,” these words are, if the person is being honest and not deceptive, a representation (coded in human symbolic language) of the actual patterned matter/energy information, called the actual belief, in the brain.

8. Philosophical/Psychological versus Biological Perspective on Beliefs Philosophical/Psychological Biological The words “belief” or “believe” used as words in human speech or writing are the symbolic language representations of the actual, movement biasing beliefs, which are patterned matter/energy in brain that biases behaviors (movements) in predictable ways • The words “belief” or “believe” used in human speech or writing have representations with the same propositional content as is being used in speech or writing in one’s non-material mind

9. How are beliefs (patterned matter or energy in brain in the form of information that biases behavior in a predictable way) acquired, stored (represented) in the physical brain? • Acquired by culturally sensitive, individual or social learning, often through normative coercion (“contagion” as in red and blue states politically in the USA or where all the people in a nation are members of the same religion.) • Physical representational properties of beliefs in brain are currently unknown

10. What do beliefs do (i.e, What is their function?) in the physical brain? • It is postulated (presumed for the sake of argument) that a belief is a quantity of information in brain that biases (influences) behavior (movement) in a predictable way.

11. What does it mean when someone says, “I believe P”? • The person using the word “belief” or “believe” in speech, as in “I believe it will not rain today,” is rationalizing his or her behavior (movement), such as not carrying an umbrella to work that morning. • Human beings have socially learned to use the words “belief” and “believe” to explain their behavioral (movement) biases to themselves (as self-talk) as well as to others. • The spoken or written words “belief” and “believe” that are outside of the human body are never causes of behavior (movement). They are always just rationalizations for behavioral (movement) biases. • When a school age child in rural Wisconsin says “I believe (hold it to be true) that the ice on the lake is not safe to walk on,” what they are telling you is the reason (rationalization) for taking the long way home from school and not walking across the frozen lake.

12. Religious Beliefs • When someone says, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God,” what they are telling themselves and you is that they are going to behave like a Christian rather than like a Jew or Muslim or secular atheist. • When a young person in early 20s says, “I believe that possession of marijuana should be decriminalized,” what they are telling you, if they are being honest, is that if given the opportunity, they are going to vote for decriminalizing it; and there is a good probability that they have used it.

13. How does one determine what someone else believes? • By what she says? Example, “I believe abortion is immoral and wrong and it should be made illegal.” • Or by what she has done? Example, the woman who said that above got pregnant in her freshman year in college and had an abortion.

14. Some Principles • What people say about what they believe (as in “I believe P”), which could be a verbal representation of their brain’s belief, because of deception and self-deception, is neither a reliable nor valid indicator of whether their brain harbors the belief or not. • Whether someone’s brain harbors a particular belief is best determined (stochastically) by their patterns of non-language, intentional behaviors in the past.

15. Religious Beliefs: Causes and Effects • Do people engage in religious rituals because of their verbalized religious beliefs? • Or, are people’s verbalized religious beliefs rationalizations for their execution of religious behavioral rituals?

16. Religious Beliefs: Causes and Effects • Do people pray based on what they say that they believe? • Or, do people say, “I believe P” as a rationalization for the fact that they pray? • As an aside, the truth value of a verbalized religious belief is irrelevant to its biological function, which is rationalize to self and others why their religiously motivated behaviors (movements) are biased in a predictable way.

17. What are the Functions (purposes) of the brain’s religious beliefs (not the verbal propositions that people write or say using the words “belief” or “believe,” but rather, the quantities of information in their brain that biases their behaviors in predictable ways)?

18. Functions of Religious Beliefs in Brain • They coordinate the behaviors of the faithful to make them similarly predictable • They enable the establishment of in-groups that can be behaviorally (culturally) differentiated from out-groups • Most importantly, they synchronize the religion-specific patterns of movements used in petitioning prayer • People who pray together (in the same way) lay together and have babies together • The rest is biology!

19. What are the functions of the verbalized or written religious beliefs, as in “I believe P”? • They rationalize religious behaviors • They enable theological doctrines, which rationalize why religious behaviors should be biased in predictable ways, to be written as a behavioral instruction that don’t seem like an instruction. • Written or verbalized beliefs that are concordant with one’s behavior feel pleasurable to hold. • Pleasurable beliefs have priority in brain over beliefs that create unpleasant feelings.

20. People acquire religious behaviors primarily by social learning (normative coercion) • The various propositional religious beliefs one learns in Catechism (religious teachings) are just the rationalizations one can use for one’s religious behaviors (movements) • Examples will be given

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. The EndSpecial thanks to Michael M. McGuire, whose book, Believing, has just been published by Prometheus Press. He and I have interchanged ideas so much about beliefs and believing that it is difficult to know which ideas are his and which are mine. Any errors in this presentation are mine.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.”