LESSONS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

Religious Education, Spring 2005 by Brelsford, Theodore

The religious educator must take seriously that, in the natural course of things, behavior is shaped by intuitions and beliefs are shaped by behavior more easily than the other way around. This means that actual (intuitive) beliefs and the actual behaviors rooted in those beliefs are likely to be recalcitrant and not readily changed by professed beliefs (the enduring and widespread acceptance of and engagement in both retaliatory and preemptive war by many Christians may be a good example of this). But it also means that intentional practices or disciplined behavior can lead to changes in beliefs. For example, insisting on non-retaliation on the playground is a good starting point toward reforming the intuitive belief that retaliation is necessary for survival. If children learn to behave non-violently, they may quite naturally move toward belief in nonviolence. If persons develop a discipline of caring for those in need, they may naturally develop a belief that the needy should be cared for. More fundamentally, belief in a loving God will come more naturally from disciplined loving practices than will loving practices come from an acquired conscious belief in a loving God.

This does not imply strict behavioralism, or mean that teaching is simply behavior modification. Rather, this may be a cognitive science angle on the fairly common contemporary Western educational assumption that learning begins in experience (Dewey) and action (Freire). A difference is that notions of experience and action in this cognitive perspective are construed more broadly in terms of evolved cognitive structures, rather than in personal or political terms.

Beliefs are not based in personal experience. It has become commonplace in liberal Protestantism to assume that differing beliefs must be rooted in different personal experiences, and, in fact, that in order for beliefs to be vibrant and real (functional) they must be rooted in personal experience. Cognitive science puts the concept of experience in a broader perspective. Ultimately, most beliefs do derive from experience in the sense that it is evolutionary experience that has shaped the structures of mind that shape our intuitions on which most beliefs are based. Personal experience then triggers beliefs rooted in evolutionary experience, and via intentional reflection and practice, may serve to modify or override the deep-rooted beliefs. In this sense, personal experience is not the primary source of beliefs. Further, beliefs, once adopted, may also influence the way we experience our experiences. So beliefs may influence experiences as much as experiences influence beliefs.

This puts the classic (educationally relevant) question of nature vs. nurture in an interesting light. A significant theme in contemporary cognitive science is the reclaiming of a notion of common human nature in the face of post-modern discourses of pluralism and constructivism (cf. Pinker 2002). However, human "nature," in the form of cognitive structures that govern intuitions and instincts, is seen as "nurtured" via evolutionary experience.