Justin Barrett Beliefs

Chapter three of Cognitive Science, Theology: From Human to Divine Minds, the author, Justin Barrett gives the reader insight on the term belief. Barrett divides this into sections of testimony, two-system model of reasoning, two kinds of belief, content and context biases, and how the belief-formation process says about whether our beliefs are true (Barrett, 2011, p. 40-57). He goes into great depth in these sections how we as people justify our beliefs. Different scenarios and people can affect our beliefs and Barrett wants to explain how it does so.
Belief is, “mentally representing something as being the case in the generation of further thought and action” (Barrett, 2011, p.40). This is important to note because our beliefs usually derive

from different aspects of our lives. In some cases things such as conformity bias is the act of liking, for example, the LA Rams rather than the Green Bay Packers. People in Los Angeles are more likely to lay the Rams because they live here, and people living Wisconsin are more likely to favor the Packers. In other cases like prestige bias, people who choose to copy the behaviors of others. An example of this would be Kevin Durant in a commercial telling his audience to buy his new KD’s because they are more durable and increase your speed. People are more likely to believe what Kevin Durant is advertising because it is her area of expertise. Then, there is similarity bias and this is where we tend to believe and trust those who we can relate to the most. On the other hand, there are other contributions to people’s beliefs and this is reasoning. According to Daniel Kahneman people often make judgments and choices using different processes but these are not always rational (Barrett, 2011, p. 44). This is due at times to outside factors such as TV shows, in many cases people believe Los Angeles, New York, Miami, and Las Vegas to be more dangerous. When in reality places such as Atlanta, St. Louis, and Washington are higher in crime. The reasoning for this is shows like NCIS, CSI, Miami Vice, and so on so forth. These shows make us viewers unconsciously make the assumption that these cities are higher, when they are not. Furthermore, Kahneman makes a very good point, “What our minds tell us, we are inclined to believe” (Barrett, 2011, p. 46). This then leads to the two kinds of belief, there is reflective and nonreflective. Reflective beliefs are what we consciously hold and vocalize them often. We often refer to the reality of individual’s reflective beliefs as, “defying any attempt at a general explanation because they seem so idiosyncratic and dependent upon personal history, experiences, and cultural context” (Barrett, 2011, p. 47). Nonreflective beliefs are knowledge that we may or may not know that we have. This is important because reflective and nonreflective beliefs coincide with one another because, “we are inclined to just accept nonreflective beliefs for our reflective ones” (Barrett, 2011, p. 49). Finally, content and context bias these two are both head to head. This is because people context are usually those who are carry a trustworthy testimony. While those who are usually higher educated are likely to think content bias because they do not agree with the information being given. The most important statement of all is, “All of our beliefs are at least partially caused by natural mechanisms whether they are true or false, good or bad….” (Barrett, 2011, p. 55).
Religion is based on beliefs and according to Barrett the way that these are formed by, “conscious information and this contributes to the formation of beliefs, an area of broad application and particularly relevant to religion and theology” (Barrett, 2011, p. 41). This means that often times we are taught religious beliefs, i.e. the bible and scripture, this helps us develop a sense of belief. This is important to know because it ties with testimony. Testimony is learned and accepted by those that we trust, also known as a credible source (Barrett, 2011, p. 41). Although this true “religious belief” is different from person to person. In all, belief is learned, vocalized, and observed throughout everyday life.