LESSONS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION FROM COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

Religious Education, Spring 2005 by Brelsford, Theodore

This suggests that a vital aspect of religious education ought to include practice in: (1) noticing one's instinctive reactions, (2) identifying the intuitions under those reactions, (3) examining professed theological convictions in relation to identified intuitions, (4) constructing and articulating conscious beliefs, and (5) using conscious beliefs to guide behavior. For example, a child may experience the urge to hit another child who has hit him or her first. This should be acknowledged as a natural response of self-preservation (based on the intuition that failure to defend oneself may lead to annihilation of the self). However, in Christian tradition, Jesus teaches that one should "turn the other cheek" (Matt 5:39; Luke 6:29). This may be seen as based in an ethic of love and rationalized as a way to stop an escalation of violence that could result in escalating harm to oneself and others. Thus, affirming a belief that Christians are called to resist retaliatory violence, one may develop a commitment to "turning the other cheek" and may review, rehearse, or enact strategies for action appropriate to this belief in scenarios where instinctual retaliation is likely to arise. A teacher may serve to guide learners through this process of reflection (on action or instinct), examination (of intuition or impulse), consideration (of relevant professed beliefs in the tradition and/or in oneself), construction (of conscious belief), and rehearsal (of appropriate actions). This is of course appropriate to persons at any age-the earlier scenario of a child facing playground conflicts, for example, is equally relevant to adult discussions of how a society should deal with terrorism.

Although this process of reflecting on instinctual actions toward shaping conscious beliefs and intentional, reflective action may seem relatively straight forward, acting in accordance with beliefs is surprisingly difficult and usually requires significant disciplined practice. Cognitive science helps explain this difficulty.

Behavior is not naturally based on belief. The bulk of human behavior is instinctive-which is to say that behavior is naturally based on intuitions. Whatever behavior is not instinctual must be learned and practiced-that is, it is disciplined (versus instinctual) behavior. Beliefs may function to rationalize disciplined behavior (making it sensible and explainable), in the same way that beliefs naturally function to rationalize instinctual behavior. In other words, belief derives from behavior (whether intuitive or disciplined), rather than vice versa. Beliefs can influence behavior via discipline and intentionality, but beliefs will only influence behavior via discipline and intentionality. In other words a sort of feedback loop is created, whereby a belief consciously formed in reflection on instinctual behavior may serve to shape disciplined behavior, which generates or reinforces a certain belief, which reinforces the disciplined behavior, which may (with practice) override instinctive behavior.