How to understand religions? Although they are more studied from the point of view of sociology and anthropology, psychology also has something to say and add, so cognitive psychology of religions gives us some clues as to why we believe in certain concepts.
While many authors have already discussed the gaps that religion fills or, what is actually the same, the functions it fulfills, none of the above seems useful and applicable for understanding. all religions.
- In other words.
- People do not choose a religion to meet a need.
- But religions meet different needs of people in different contexts.
On the other hand, given cognitive psychology, the adoption of a religion will depend more on the basic processes, specifically memory.
How religions are transmitted and practiced will determine how to remember them and ultimately also affect acceptance of what they preach.
In general, all religions believe in gods, spirits or ghosts, all these elements can be classified as supernatural beings.
These beings have characteristics that go beyond humans, such as immortality or the ability to see what happens in other parts of the world, it is also customary to attribute to these beings the ability to change and influence the fate of humans.
“Religion is but a reflection of the fantastic, in the minds of men, of the external powers that dominate their daily existence. A reflection in which earthly forces take extraterrestrial forms?. – Fiedrich Engels-
Thus, these supernatural beings are not bound by the limitations of humans, which is stranger: these beings are accepted when they are in the context of a religious doctrine, but not if they are not in this context, for example, many people who believe in a god would say that ghosts and hadas are not real.
To understand how we can accept these beliefs and understand the cognitive psychology of religions, we use a theory that speaks to both types of religiosity.
According to this theory developed by Harvey Whitehouse, there are two modes of religiosity: doctrinal and imagined. In this way, different religions would be classified into one type or another.
Doctrinally you learn the meaning of rituals, there is not much social cohesion, there are leaders, it spreads quickly and can reach universal reach; on the other hand, in the imagist type, the meanings of rituals are not generated, Cohesion is intense, passive leadership, of slow diffusion and ethnic reach.
The type of religiosity associated with the doctrine requires constant communication, in addition, there must be repeated rituals, for example for Christianity we have to go to mass at least once a week.
While so many repetitions can generate boredom, they also promote implicit memory, this memory is the same one that allows us to ride a bike, we learned, without knowing how to explain, how to do things automatically.
“I do not understand by religion a set of rituals or customs, but what is at the origin of all religions, which puts us face to face with the servant. “- Mahatma Gandhi.
On the other hand, this type of memory reduces thinking and innovation. This generates less critical people who accept the assumptions of a religion on the grounds that “it has always been this way. “
However, not all knowledge is involved. Knowledge of doctrine is also taught: as in the previous example, it can be taught in the catechism.
In this way, this type of religiosity includes leaders who are the ones who will transmit knowledge, and who also have hierarchical power structures, structures that, combined with the lack of individual reflection and innovation, increase the acceptance of interpretations of religion. .
The imaginist type, unlike the doctrinal type, maintains rituals much less frequently; for example, initiation rituals that are performed once in a lifetime.
This type of ritual is associated with strong emotions, whether negative or positive, and that generate strong cohesion, so they generally do not form large communities, because they are afraid of those who do not participate in these rituals.
This mode of religiosity awakens episodic memory. This type of memory reminds us very well of certain episodes that we live, even remembering all the details.
In addition, this type of memory results in spontaneous reflection characterized by the transformation of information, for example, using analogies and metaphors, in this way the resulting interpretations are different, so there are generally no leaders.
Going back to their origins, cognitive psychology of religions can explain belief in supernatural beings, depending on the doctrinal path, both lack of criticism and explicit and implicit memory can lead to accepting their existence. the imagination of episodic memory can lead to the same conclusion.