![]() ![]() ![]() While Barrett rightly takes Hitchens, Dawkins et al. But xenophobia has survival value, too, and it is an easily induced trait. These experiments are intriguing and offer an occasional corrective to the teachings of Jean Piaget, and Barrett makes it clear that children are not gullible and ready to believe anything put forth by their parents-they subscribe to what he calls a “natural religion.” In the second part of the book, the author indicts atheism by arguing that if one accepts natural selection then one cannot reject the natural religion of childhood-it must have survival value. By four or five, kids see a purpose, not only in objects, but also in creatures, rocks, rivers and mountains. As they develop, children are prone to see agents as powerful forces unlike humans. In the first part of the book, the author looks at cross-cultural studies of children conducted by experts in the “cognitive science of religion.” The studies indicate that, from an early age, humans know the difference between inanimate objects and “agents”-people or forces that can move or make things move. Belief in a divine power is only human, writes Oxford Centre for Anthropology and Mind senior researcher Barrett ( Why Would Anyone Believe in God, 2004). ![]()
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