Paul Bloom does some of the most interesting work. Love this guy.

One main take away from this is that people seem to maintain their beliefs as a social mechanism first and foremost. That’s incredibly useful insight into human motivation; we want to be included and will often shift our viewpoints in order to align ourselves with the group.

Good presentation. I have lived my whole life without "religion" and have done just fine. Wouldn't change anything because I don't need to. But, as I have aged I have come to realize that for others, "religion" does offer something beneficial for them. And I believe it is real for them. I am perfectly fine living my life and making some compromises along the way for those who have a different perspective than mine. It is my experience that tolerance is usually responded in kind. I see absolutely no reason for the issue to be divisive.

The real roadblock to thinking clearly and honestly about the world is not religion itself, but lack of skepticism (particularly self-skepticism), the assumption that ones knows what one is talking about without first investigating it, and the personal, emotional attachment to propositions. This lecture in particular reminds me that it is important not to submit to any "Double Deference" if one is intending to discover the truth. Look carefully at _why_ one might regard a proposition as true; this alone should influence your belief in it. Not who said it, not out of which sphere it emerges, not how you feel about it, not how it pertains to you. It can be a long journey with many tangents, and we must ask ourselves in the process what constitutes a good _why_, and put our egos and passions aside. But I think we must take it.

My favourite lecturer of the moment.

i came here to thank you for your Yale course on youtube, but here you show the slides extra point !!!

Paul Bloom is awesome.

Not long ago I watched a documentary about an Amazonian tribe. In this documentary, one of the tribal leaders gathered all the children to have a little...educational session. He then told them a story. The story went something like this: Once upon a time a mother went down to the river to gather some water with her infant. She set her baby down and began to gather water in buckets. When she had her head turned, a monkey came and snatched her baby, and ran off into the forest. She was hysterical, and asked the god of the forest to bring her baby back. The god of the forest took pity on her and made monkey bring the baby back to her. The god was furious with monkey, and as punishment he cursed the monkey so it must forever remain in the trees, forbidden from coming to the ground. This is why monkeys live in trees. A cultural fiction used to explain aspects of their environment. This is exactly the same as Christianity. Once upon a time a god made some humans and put them in a garden. He gave them an insatiable thirst for knowledge, a natural curiosity and inquisitiveness. He then put a magic knowledge tree in the garden, and forbid them from eating its fruit. He then decided to put an evil talking snake in the garden, with the goal of attempting to persuade them to eat from the tree. Well, they did eat from the tree...imagine that. God was furious with them, so as punishment he cursed the humans with death, and future generations would all be born with this curse, with sin and wickedness in their hearts. This is why people die, and why people do bad things. I take it back, they're not exactly the same. The monkey story is more plausible, and the god in the monkey story doesn't appear to be a literal psychopath. However, they're the same in that they are both complete and utter fiction.

UKposts suggested this and I appreciate it.

It took me years to leave my religious upbringing but I can never go back. I think it gives people comfort so religions and believes in god or gods goes on from generation to generation.

I love the explanations of professor Bloom!!

Absolute fantastic, Mr. Bloom! Thank you so much.

Very interesting. Thanks!

Great talk by Paul Bloom! As an aside, what video camera model was used to record Paul? (I'm considering buying one to record Humanist talks)

Excellent approach to these issues. And I say that as a theist.

The way we think / reason is largely driven by tradition. Religion is just one part of the overall bundle of traditions that guide our sense of the world.

I hope to meet you someday Paul.

A great speaker always ,

the videographer should have focused more on the slides eg he missed The Onion slide @ 0:28:40

He talked about tomorrow lecture, how can I find it?

I wonder if there are differing levels of belief. Are different parts of the brain are activated when for instance someone is asked if the sky is blue, vs if someone is asked if miracles exist, having before stated that they believe in both.

If this is true then humanity has no future.. I question as much as possible of what I think to know.. I thought that's the usual approach.. Now I learn that the majority of people just believe for no good reason... It's a tragedy.

Wouldn't it be interesting, in order to test where the self is, to use other senses than just sight? When you ask where the fly or snowflake is closer to the self, you use your eyes and therefore they are observed closest to you when they are near your head. I'm curious what the outcome would be if you would ask the participants about cold air blowing on you body or warm light shining on you and where it is closest to the self, because nerve endings are all over your body.

He says a more appropriate title for the talk would be "There Is Nothing Special About Religious Belief." (46:20) What I think he means is that the reason people have religious beliefs is strikingly similar to why people have beliefs about other things, including the age of the Earth and the explanation for the great variety of life on this planet. Basically: _we take somebody's word for it_. He also says that religion _can_ lead to exactly the kind of thing you suggest: "so many people killing and dying for it" (55:15)

Good talk

This man open up the book where I can understand what I am learning

It comes down to storytelling, meaning understanding the story you want to tell and HOW you want to tell it. By missing the slides it shows the videographer wasn't thinking about composition which also means he/she wasn't thinking about the story.

Interesting and thoughtful presentation. Thank you for posting.

Sadness for person dying , it’s not that you stop believing of existence of after death, it is because you will not have the human interaction/contact in human form any more with that body.

Other than science and religion, I think the division of cognitive labor applies to politics as well. I've met plenty of people that will identify with a certain political party, but have a hard time explaining policy stances by that party above a superficial level. It always made me feel like they were just parroting back what they heard. Of course, there are also people that are very well informed, but it's hard to judge which ones are correct without becoming an expert yourself. You're left with deciding which side to trust using your own biases and feelings.

I love how he uses his family as test subjects :D

🗣 _There are no commandments, because there is no commander._

The Fly is Closer to Mary in the face because of Visual Perspective in which the size of the fly is humongous on her face in proportion to her face vs on her shoes it looks smaller and farther away.

This makes a lot of sense. I think the "dualism/animism" theory for religion is more likely than the theory that we made gods up out of fear of death.

Ignorance and fear are the foundations of all religion. In pre-historic times, humankind believed in animism, as they venerated animals and plants as having a "spirit." And of course, lightening wasn't understood, nor was disease, and so when these things occurred, fear of the unknown led to beliefs in a "God" or "Gods" to protect humans from the vicissitudes of life. Today we have a well developed science that can explain much, even going back to the beginning of the universe. But the vast majority of the people on earth have been inculcated since birth with some mythological religion , and huge religious institutions have developed over the millennia, who are not about to give up their power over their "flocks." The result is; we continue to have religion perpetuated even though it often violates logic, and offers no evidence of being true. Perhaps as time goes by, we can evolve away from these unfounded beliefs, into a species that values reason above all.

i think very few really have faith in the religion they claim when it comes to gods, they just think if they act like it hard enough it it is true and it aint but if it is and they know it's not but they got to live forever.,and they can't imagine not existing.

12:41 "If you ask people, 'Where are you? Where is your self?' You will get an answer, 'You are in your head.' " I have heard that the ancient Greeks, of Homer's time, considered "their personalities" as residing in their Liver, or chest; in the same way that we think of ourselves as "residing in our heads." Apparently they though the liver was the seat of thought, not the brain. Curiously, they were also very emotional and it was considered a sign of strength for a man to show emotion in public. For example, War Heroes would openly weep and cry during funeral speeches.

I know this was made years ago... and the video team does a fair job of covering the lecture, but i was peeved when Bloom would be directing the audiences attention to the powerpoint and the camera would just stay on him and after the example was illustrated the camera would stutter over for a second and linger on other screen that need not be seen.... look alive camera guy!

We are naturally prone to see deities in nature, we naturally believe in souls as dualists, or are these societal.

theologians are like scientists? no they are not; if you are lucky a theologian is like a historian, a philosopher, maybe a journalist; but most probably fall under the category of a demagogue.

When we pointing finger in our self and say:"I" we point it on our chest, but Japanese pointing finger in their nose. :)

Great lecture. Terrible audio. So-so result.

Hmm. Late recommendation. Paul rocks side to side a lot. Nervousness or something ig.

I like the noticeably German attitude of the question around 1:11:30 No prisoners taken^^

Hez the bestt

15: 15 he asked only 99 indians? thats not much people especially for internet survey.

Of course there is nothing important. What a title ❤

At about 20 minutes he has an example with a lost teddybear. This would indicate that children are more theological than adults. But does he take into account the possibility that the children are allready more or less indoctrinated by there parents with a beliefsystem?

23:00 Yes exactly the hegonomic twenty first century superficial best human beings can currently do wanting rid of old God is Darwinism ,but Intelligence and consciousness may not be just individual but the matrix out of which it all emerges.

I don't know. I'm not sure that religion doesn't codify the process described by Dr. Bloom here, making it worse. Yes, I'll defer to Paul Bloom or Stephen Pinker on something without thinking about it a lot of times, but when I realize that I'm doing this I recognize a problem with it. I don't think that people do that in the context of religion. The other thing that I would argue is different about religion, especially vs. science, is that process for becoming an expert is different. It is very easy to get religious authority. There are roughly the same amount of secularly inclined Americans as there are evangelicals. By secularly inclined, I mean nones and liberal christians who are inclined towards an empirical worldview. George W. Bush got elected largely due to the influence of evangelicals. Imagine how much harder it would be for someone to get the same level of support from the secularly inclined. GW could never have done it. The religiously inclined will _readily_ follow the stupid. The quality of the "experts" that religion allows for makes it a special case.

Job 38 God speaks out of the whirlwind Through the eye wall of the storm He finds himself in thunders home A swirling tempest all around He flys aloft above the ground The darkness swells on rolling clouds A piercing light from trumpets loud A grasp of breath a silent cry He stands within the Mighty eye A still and peaceful crowns abode He utters forth a Royal poem Assured of life with peace within He rides the eyewall of the wind And landing safely on the earth He tells the story of rebirth Of life again from deaths abode He spreads the truth along the road A life that's lost can rise again Inside the eye wall of the wind

15:00 I like how every culture mentioned the crotch as the area of the body that the self inhabits

Poor quality audio

Me personally, I think I'm a chimera. I'm some software running on a squishy meat computer. Very temporarily.

I would be extremely embarrassed if I were the sound man for this presentation. Brilliant talk, terrible sound quality.

Human history of what words mean, and human lack of understanding what's being perceived, and all along, words lagging through the centuries to even correctly label what is going on, is all. Human history of language lagging behind, and all our history strewn with misconceptions we still trip over. "We" "self" "body parts" "Soul" "Santa Claus". We've "Santa Claus-ized" so many "things" we can't tell what's up.

I wish the recorder of this talk stayed on the screen, instead of following Mr. Bloom.

🤯

There is no evidence God exists. All religions and all religious books are man-made. Beware of con artists. Be good, do good, and do no harm.

Is there any chance you could stop constantly moving even when you're standing still, its so distracting hehe

Maybe the bird dropping was an image of Muhammad?

Paul Bloom really reminds me of Jerry Springer. lol,

Belief in God elevates us to our true dignity, and without it we are not complete in our human experience. Science answers the when and where; religion answers The Who and why. Without it we become centered on ourselves and fall to the sins of greed, lust, envy, gluttony, idolatry, and the root of all of them, pride. The psychological theory of self actualization even recognizes the importance of faith in the priorities of becoming the best self one can be. Human beings automatically have the innate sense of worship....either they will worship themselves, earthly creation, false gods, or the true God. The common theme amongst atheists is a certain type of arrogance; that one is above everything. Only when we humble ourselves before God can we truly be lifted up. The event of Jesus being crucified and rising again was an actual historical event. His disciples sacrificed everything, and do to this day, to be joined with Him. Faith is a gift that can only be experienced through the openness to it. Many of the saints throughout history saw the risen Christ and were given visions of heaven and hell. The miracle of Fatima in 1917, where the Virgin Mary appeared to three shepherd children and the sun danced across the sky, was experienced by thousands and is legit. Also consider the Shroud of Turin, believed by many to be the burial cloth of Christ. And the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico, which defies scientific explanation. The Church has standard and strict regulations dictating what a true apparition is. Of course, seeing the Virgin Mary on a piece of burnt toast is not a case which the Church would seriously consider. There must be many witnesses, and true miracles ascribed to them; and even in the cases that the Church seems worthy of belief, we are not commanded to do so. In today’s world it is popular to embrace multiculturalism and to believe all religions are equal. The idea of the “noble savage” is also accepted among many. But many people are not aware that these indigenous peoples committed grave acts of human sacrifice and other atrocities that go against the teachings of Christ. The Crusades were only a response to over 400 years of Muslim invasions and killings of thousands of Christians in Africa and the Iberian peninsula. The Aztecs sacrificed many people to their sun god. So all religions are not equal. Also, it is disingenuous to hold the moral standards of today to people who lived centuries ago. I know it is not popular in this secular age, especially in academic circles, to place one’s faith in God. And as I stated, Faith is a supreme gift and not something one can attain just by listening to someone’s argument. But after being alive for 57 years, having experienced all of the struggles and disappointments of life, I cannot imagine living without the comfort and love of my Lord and Savior.

so a psychologist is lecturing about philosophy? hmm.... Pretty poorly filmed; the sound is poor and there;s no reason the screen isn't part of the view.

Such poor camera work. Distorted audio.

Could it be that science has evolved from religion?

I disagree about the inconsistencies about being a scientist as well as being religious. Religion and Science are 2 different things. There is no one or the other they both coincide. There were scientists in the past who were creationists and because they believe in a Creator, they believed there were consistencies in the world to be discovered. And it contributed to scientific discoveries. I don't want to go into details but I feel that Paul Bloom might not have enough in depth knowledge about Christianity to judge it this way. Or it seems like he has grouped the religious people in the 'non-thinking' and 'non-researching' category. There are many great thinkers and learned people; scientists even who are religious. Does he not think they have come to this conclusion based on certain experiences and research and after much thought deliberation? I would suggest people watch the 2 debates held by Dawkins and Lennox. And also go listen to the audio book by CS Lewis called Mere Christianity. Just my two cents. Don't really want to go into a long debate with anyone... just that if they want to talk about religion they should also do their own research first and learn more in depth of what it really is about. Other than that, though I disagree on how he came to his conclusions on some things, he lecture was quite informative to me. I'm still going to say I appreciate his research.

'There Is Nothing Special About Religion' ? Then why are so many people killing and dying for it? I think its a mistake to blunt the hard (even bloody) edges of this particular argument.

Doesnt constant skepticism just lead to absolute melancholy and disdain for life?

Wondering, if there was a god for the atheistic scientist, what would he be like for the scientist to believe and be really sure he is there; that he exists ..can be tested in the lab perhaps...

may allah guide him

🎯😆🇨🇦🇺🇸

É que você não vai pegar um montão de mulheres estelionatárias. É RELIGIÃO SIM MUÇULMANAS

Children are teleological, innate. Animism, dualism, creationism.

Everyone believes in a god, whatever you worship first and let rule your life is your god. Some worship another person, science and even sports. As for me, my God is Jesus Christ, I know that He is Lord not because of an equation, but the ultimate inadequacy of only myself leading my life. We are all in need of Him.

Is call superstitious mind

DS Wilson would disagree.

God is the greatest

Yeah, religion is just the zenith of wishful thinking.

very weak arguments

Maybe there actually is a God and scientists are just blind.

He lost me when he quoted Dawkins; the man who thinks nothing created something....lol