April 12th Notes REL 304 Why Gods Matter Relevance - Cognitively speaking, relevance refers to what we naturally

ly pay attention to and why. - Human cognition is naturally tuned to maximize relevance; our minds pay attention to things in the environment that are personally important. - Gods matter to people because they hold personal rather than cosmic relevance. The ordinary structure of god concepts (notes from before) ++ 4. Because gods are Person-like, they engage social intelligence (mental processes that underlie social perception, judgment, and behavior). 5. Religious thought is social thought: this is the key to explaining what is unusual about gods and what makes them so relevant. We think about gods just as we think about people. We use the same tools in our minds as we do when we think about people Social Intelligence Strategic Information - Is often context specific - Often retains lasting value - May be obtained both directly and indirectly - The valuation process engages intuitive moral reasoning - Other people use it to evaluate and interact with us The Extraordinary Structure of God Concepts - What make gods simultaneous extraordinary and relevant is how much they know and what they know. - Gods are represented as possessing full and perfect access to strategic information. o People limited-access strategic agents Gods Full-access strategic agents - Gods are represented as posses full and perfect access to moral information o People limited-access moral agents Gods full-access moral agents - Human-god interaction is controlled by mental mechanisms that guide everyday human social exchange. - God concepts are pervasive and persuasive because they capitalized on the human minds most powerful mental system: social cognition. TEST INFORMATION: Started with Biological routes of religion. What does the theoretical approaches say about religion, not necessarily anything else about psychology. MC

Possibly essays routed in the last few days of class. (short answer/essay) Two long essay response: Relationship between body, mind and experience. From the perspective of cognitive sciences, what do they say gods are, what are gods, why are the so relevant, what makes them ordinary, what makes them extraordinary, why do they persist?