God Talk

1. God Talk

2. On the Meaning of Terms • Meaning is constrained from two major sources. • My society provides a language where terms have multiple ranges of meaning. • My attempt to communicate something specific also constrains the meaning. • These constraints may or may not overlap. • Meanings are not preset but vary within a range with context.

3. “That’s three runs.” • Are we talking baseball? • Are we talking about nylons? • Are we talking about scientific lab results? • Are we talking about a track meet? • Are we talking about a game on your I-phone?

4. “Can you lend me your largest ramafruge?”

5. Two more requirements for meaning • The terms must be imaginable. • Examples of failure here are: • “The corner of the circle….” • “The intellectual development of a quark….” • If the concepts are intended to describe something real they must be tied to experiences. • E.g. – atoms, the dragons that attempt to swallow the sun and moon at eclipses. • What about the supernatural?

6. I propose Construmentalism • By this I mean that I choose (usually automatically), from among the available concepts that might be useful in describing and organizing my experiences, certain concepts with which to construe my experiences in a way that I hope will be useful to me and communicative to others. • To a significant extent, my mind dictates what I perceive. • Not only do I choose to think I operate this way, I choose to think everybody does. • Neither rationality nor empirical evidence determines the choice. I tend to construe things (according to stereotypical patterns) first and make up excuses later. • True/false, right/wrong are largely beside the point.

7. Implications of Construmentalism • If I am right I cannot prove it. • I can only propose and let you make of it what you choose. • I must sit lightly on my construments and wait to see if something better comes along.

8. Are we just playing with words? • Some people are going to accuse me of simply playing with the concept “God”. • But if so, this is serious play. • I am suggesting that people who don’t know what they mean (or didn’t know what they meant) , do (or did) in fact mean something. And this is it and it is empirical. • This path will allow theists and non theists to communicate. • We all live with each other. To ignore something important to many is not friendly but impolite to say the least. • Any conceptual framework which has survived for thousands of years, deserves some respect. • A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.

14. A brightness illusion - the centre on the left looks brighter

16. If the eye is at Q there will be a virtual image of P at P`. P` is not real but the observer might not know that! Further the observer might not have a concept for P and therefore be unable to perceive P. P’

17. Having a referent for “God” • The term “God” is a human term. We created it. We apply it or we don’t. If we don’t choose to apply it to something it becomes meaningless (or vague) to us. • It strikes me as incredible that many would try to prove or disprove the existence of God without first knowing (or deciding) to what the term refers or might be applied.

18. Contributions from Immanuel Kant • The capacities of the mind determine (contribute to) what we can and do experience. • The stress on the distinction between phenomenal and noumenal. • Limiting knowledge to the phenomena. • We make some (not all) knowledge claims based on what the mind brings to experience. • His useful distinction between pure and pragmatic reason. • The role of forms and categories. Not fully correct, but suggestive.

19. So what further do we need? • Kant’s “mechanics” of the mind were defective. So we need a better theory of how construments develop from mental operations. Hawkins provides this.

20. Hawkins on Intelligence • Memory, Intelligence, Awareness, etc. in mammals seem to be functions of the mammalian cortex. • The structure of the mammalian cortex is new with the evolution of mammals; hence the word “neocortex.” • In humans the cortex is more extensive than in other animals, about 30 billion cells with an average of 1000 synapses per cell. • 90 % or more of the cortex seems to have the same structure.

21. The cortex as pattern recognition organ • From the uniformity of structure, Hawkins follows Mountcastle in hypothesizing uniformity of function. • Assuming the cortex is the organ of intelligence, the only input is a spatial-temporal collection of electro-chemical discharge patterns. • These come from sense organs, and various sections of the brain, including the cortex itself. • Our cortex creates our awareness of whatever from its perceptions of patterns in these discharges.

22. On Memory • Hawkins doesn’t attempt to give us a precise mechanism for memory other than to suggest that the synapses are involved in storing and recognizing discharge patterns. • It takes many fewer synapses to store a label than to store what the label represents.

23. The cortex is not like a computer! • The cortex stores sequences of patterns. • The cortex recalls patterns auto-associatively. • The cortex stores patterns in an invariant form. • The cortex stores patterns in a hierarchy. • Illustration: Recalling the memory of a song. • You will know the next note; even if it is in a key, a voice, or an instrument, you’ve never heard before.

24. How do you have a useful concept of ‘dog’ or ‘circle’ etc. • Every dog is a little different from other dogs and every time you see the same dog the experience is a little different. • It helps to have seen some dogs, cats, birds, cows, etc. (so you have some memories and can build some similarity relations). • Now when you see another dog, the discharge patterns in the cells of the cortex somehow seem similar to those associated with the name ‘dog’ and not so much to the name ‘cat’.

25. Forward and Backward Processing • Each section of the cortex is taking inputs from multiple sections below or from the senses and from the thalamus and other sections of the brain. Perhaps I will already have enough clues to process at a high level. • Processing goes forward and back. The back processing is a prediction (construment) of what you are sensing based on some similarity to some pattern in memory. • It can fill in what you don’t sense. • It can preempt the forward processing by inhibiting alternative forward processing.

26. Summary from Hawkins • The cortex does not work by formal logic! It’s guesswork, “construment.” • The cortex will likely find something familiar, a suggested construment, even for first time experiences. • If the dissonance is too much there is a mechanism to handle that and constitute a new memory. • There is no role for foundational propositions to explain our beliefs. • We don’t conclude things based on self-evident or revealed propositions. • We don’t attempt to prove that our construments (predictions or guesses) are the only possible ones. • Recognition, metaphor, even artistic imagination are in play. • So far there is no role for proof. Our construments are stereotypical. • Culture, early childhood experiences, and religious upbringing lead to different models of morality and the world. Moral reasoning is learned.

27. How we think • The mind/brain is not primarily an engine of rationality. • We do not think rationally and we are not like computers. • But, by grasping how we do think, we should be able to build better robots and fashion better arguments. • Consider politics of “reframing.”

28. The Role of Art • Because of the presence of choice and the underdetermined character of our conclusions it is becoming evident that life itself is an art form. • We construe our self-concept, and the rest of our phenomenal world, even our life in an artistic way. • Science can be helpful, but it too is an art form.

29. Rest of paper • Present a Proposal for Empirical Referent of “God” (next 6 slides) • Ancient Antecedents and development (5 slides) • Some support from the Scientific study of Religion (11 slides) • Some support from A History of God • Have time for Questions and Answers

30. What do we mean by empirical? • “Knowledge” (a pattern) comes only or primarily from sense experience. • The use of sensory evidence, tests, and experiments should enable us to choose patterns. • The words “empirical” and “experience” come from cognate Greek and Latin words which were used to describe the method of a school of medicine that opposed the dogmatic approach.

31. There are different degrees of Empiricism. • Strong Empiricism – we only know what comes from our senses (nothing else). • Whatever we claim to know (from whatever source) should be confirmed or refuted by appeal to our senses. • Whatever patterns we choose to use should be tied to experiences. (If what we conceive cannot be reconciled with our experience then there is a problem.)

32. The concept “God” is tied to our experiences. • If it were not so, it would have disappeared! • The concept is fundamental and privileged. Much more so than “unicorn,” “tooth fairy,” “Santa Claus,” “Easter bunny,” or “sandman”, etc. • Many people have “religious experiences”. • There is something called the “God Helmet” used in Persinger's research in the study of the neural correlates of religion and spirituality.

33. God is experienced as: • Powerful – but there can be no empirical foundation for omnipotence. • Benevolent – but not omni benevolent. • Knowledgeable – but not omniscient. • Long lasting – but not eternal. • Widely available – but not omnipresent. • Good – but not perfect.

34. God is experienced as: • Within us. • Our physical and biological environment. • Our social context. • Our significant others. • Our culture.

35. God Society Sociology External Environment Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Agriculture Internal Environment Psychology, Medicine, Neurophysiology Significant Others Psychology, Sociology Culture Anthropology

36. Ancient Antecedents • Ma’at • Rta (later Dharma) • Asha (derived from Rta? Later Ahura Mazda) • Tao (leads to wu wei, leads to laissez faire) • Logos • Buddha Nature, Sunyata

37. Egyptian Goddess Ma’at • Ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. • As a Deity she regulates the stars, seasons, and actions of mortals and deities in this life and the next. • At creation she set the order of the universe and then sustains it. • The sun god Ra created by setting his daughter Ma’at in place of chaos.

38. Some Biblical references to God • Exodus 3 – God’s name is YHWH, the verb “to be”. Implies that God is Being itself, Existence, The Ground of Being, that with which we are ultimately concerned. • Genesis – God is the creator and sustainer. • Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5 – God is lawgiver and Judge. – Source of morality. • Psalm 19 – The heavens declare the glory of God. Attributes of God seen in environment. • Psalm 50, Deut. 33 – God shines forth from the land, is present in his people, etc. • Psalms, Isaiah 63, Jer. 2,3, Hosea, etc. – God as Father, spouse, even kinsman. • Various people have various gods – Individual gods tie together the individual societies that live in various places. Jews are not to worship them because they lead away from YHWH and into foreign societies.

39. Some New Testament refs to God • John 1 – Jesus is the logos incarnate. (neo-platonic view) Logos = God = Ma’at. The rational character of everything is God. • John 8 – “I came from God.… you are of your father the devil.” – There is something within individuals which forms them and guides their perceptions and actions. • Acts 17 – Paul preaches in Athens about the “unknown god”– “in him we live and move and have our being…. We are his offspring.” – This environment shapes our lives, our activities, and our very essence. • Eph 6 – “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of the air.” – Devils like Deities are not a type of being but characteristics of our environment. • I John 4 – “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.” – God is a relationship to others.

40. Philosophy Natural philosophy Natural science Science, scientist God Nature Human nature Society, culture Historical development of concepts An example of some of this transition can be seen in the six editions of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (from 1759 to 1790). Some who would not object to “Nature has provided man with….” would object to “God has provided man with….” And some who would object to “Human nature equips the individual with….” would not object to “Society provides the individual with….”

41. Freud’s Dark Vision • Freud regards religion as false and illusory. • But useful as wish fulfillment and as restraint on human instincts toward incest, cannibalism, a lust for killing, and to combat laziness. • Humans seek to maximize pleasure while minimizing suffering. Our tools are civilization (culture) and religion which supports it by restraining our negative impulses. • But this solution creates displeasure by virtue of • Our own painful, mortal existence • Cruel and destructive aspects of the natural world • Necessary sacrifices to live with other people. • While the love instinct can be used to bind society together, the aggressive instinct must be repressed or redirected toward other societies. • Repressed instinctive drives show up as guilt, or anxiety, or neuroses. Religion attempts to deal with these by explaining evil and providing forgiveness.

42. Later psychoanalytic view • The great religions help some people to resolve their internal and external conflicts, integrate their personalities and optimize their relationships (salvation). • But many are left in a childish state of subservience to myth. • Jung said that the gods are archetypes from the collective unconsciousness. When projected they lose power. Most of his patients (2nd half of practice) suffered from losing contact with these gods. • Psychoanalysis might be a better way. Thus “Psychoanalysis is the rich man’s religion” or “Religion is the poor man’s psychoanalysis.”

43. Hawkins, Bruce Hood and beyond • We often think we have experienced something we haven’t. • We have seen things fall but not gravity. • We have seen live bodies but not life. • We have experienced many dogs but not dog. • We have experienced instances of social suasion but not God. • In every case the abstract noun on the right is taken as a name for one or more perceived patterns. • If we don’t have abstract nouns like “society” or “culture”, the term “God” is very useful. • So God is a construment.

44. Hawkins, Hood, and beyond #2 • We have all experienced the feeling that someone or something, either within or outside our mind wants us to do something. • Hawkins and Hood have shown that we have the concept of agency available even where we have not seen the agent. • If the rains have washed out our path, • If a crocodile eats the mailman, • Or a tornado tears the roof off a house, • Or the wind blows the water back allowing us to cross where there was water, etc.; • Surely it was an act of God. And • Who is it who insists that I pay attention to my neighbor’s needs? • Who suggests that I root for the home team when I don’t know the players? • Who convinces me to make a contribution to my church or United Way? • Why do I stop at a red light when no one else is there? • Why do I keep my promises? Why do I care what happens to others? Etc. • These are not rational extrapolations from Kant’s categorical imperative. Some would cite “social pressures” and “political calculations.” But where these concepts are not available, “God” is a simpler explanation. I am not saying “God” is a better explanation, but that we are prewired to think that way.

45. Emile Durkheim • Religion is what holds society together. • God is society writ large. It is society’s way of representing itself to itself. The believer’s self image depends on God. • The totemist knows that the totem represents God. He also knows that it represents his society. He may have another for himself. • Religion reflects society’s collective aspects. Every society can be called religious, for any society lacking collective ways of thinking and acting is not in fact a society. • If we feel dependent on god, that is but a symbolic representation of our dependency on society; • if we tremble at god’s justice and punishment, that is our regard for society’s laws. • Our reverence for divinity is but our respect for society; • our belief in the immortality of the soul, our belief in the continuity of the collective life.

46. These concepts are protected and existentially vital. • They are protected because they are vital to the maintenance of society, the collective life of the group. • Also therefore of: • Culture • One’s own self concept • A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and surrounded by prohibitions – beliefs and practices that unite its adherents in a single moral community called a church.

47. Later Sociologists • When sociologists say god is mediated to us by society they mean more than that others tell us what to believe. They mean that the referent is social. Many gods have become obsolete, but so have those societies. • Guy Swanson found that belief in god was universal in societies with three or more levels of sovereign groups.

48. E. E. Evans-Pritchard (d.1973) • Argued that religion of the Azande (witchcraft and oracles) must be understood in social context and function. (solving disputes) • Azande faith in witchcraft and oracles was quite logical and consistent once some fundamental tenets were accepted. • Loss of faith could not be endured because of its social importance. • Hence they had an elaborate system of explanations (or excuses) against disproving evidence. • Besides an alternative system of terms or school of thought did not exist.

49. Clifford Geertz’ definition of Religion • Religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. • Culture is also a system of symbols, So religion is a form of culture. And one the most important symbols is “God.”

50. Geertz’ Comment on Culture and the role of Anthropologist • Geertz followed Weber when he wrote that “man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun and the analysis of it must be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.” • The anthropologist must be both empirically rigorous and a savvy interpreter, akin to a psychoanalyst. • In 1972 he wrote that “cultural analysis is (or should be) guessing at meanings, assessing the guesses and drawing explanatory conclusions from the better guesses.”