Today’s title riffs on the seventh installment of William Saletan’s Slate series on the memory researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. In several places in the article, one could simply replace words or phrases and the result would be an accurate description of the ways in which religious cultural inputs create imaginary worlds for believers of most [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Elizabeth Loftus'
Training Humans: Better Living Through Religious Indoctrination
June 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Emotions and Religion, Morality and Religion, Recent and New Religions, Ritual and Religion
Tags:cultural inputs·cultural patterning·Elizabeth Loftus·imagination·implantation·indoctrination·memories·memory·sin·suggestion·taboo·Ur-God·William Saletan
Malleable Memories and Brainsoothing Religiosity
May 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Emotions and Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Another nice article in Slate today from William Saletan on memory researcher Dr. Elizabeth Loftus. As has been the case with the previous articles, the most recent entry — “Truth or Consequences?” — is relevant to supernaturalism and religions:
[Dr. Elizabeth Loftus] wrote with dismay of the “horrifying idea that our memories can be changed, inextricably [...]
Tags:brainsoothing·Elizabeth Loftus·false reality·Freud·Future of An Illusion·God's Brain·Lionel Tiger·memories·memory·Michael McGuire·Nietzsche·truth·William Saletan·wish fulfillment
The Recipe for Religion — Cooking Up Spiritual Experiences
May 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Emotions and Religion, Methodology of Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
In the fourth installment in his series on memory and the work of Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Slate’s William Saletan discusses “repressed memories” that have given rise to all sorts of injustice in courtrooms across America. The title of today’s article is “The Recipe: A Cookbook for Memories of Sexual Abuse,” and includes this revelatory excerpt:
Loftus [...]
Tags:confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·filtered experience·identity·imagination·immersion·indoctrination·inference·memories·memory·recipe for religion·spiritual cookbook·spiritual experiences·suggestion·William Saletan
Religous Inputs Create “Memories” of Spiritual Experiences
May 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Emotions and Religion, History of Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
In yesterday’s post regarding William Saletan’s excellent (and continuing) series on memory over at Slate, I quoted this excerpt: “The scary part is that your memories have already been altered. Much of what you recall about your life never happened, or it happened in a very different way.” Elaborating on this idea, Saletan recounts another [...]
Tags:brainwashing·confabulation·cultural inputs·Elizabeth Loftus·memory implants·spiritual experiences·William Saletan
Memory Manipulation and Religious Experiences
May 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Emotions and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Though I have had my disagreements with William Saletan in the past — we have briefly debated whether “race” is a biologically valid classification (it isn’t) — I want to be the first to congratulate him on a series of articles (“The Memory Doctor”) he is running over at Slate. The subject is memory and [...]
Tags:cognition·confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·fabrications·imagination·memories·memory·past lives·reincarnation·suggestibility·William Saletan