God and the Brain

When asking whether it is rational to believe that God exists, one may argue whether such a belief violates some canon of reason or whether such belief is merely a cognitive artifact. By investigating what cognitive science calls agent-detecting devices (that trigger the belief that an object is acting purposefully) and theory of mind (that an agent enjoys mental events), Clark’s (philosophy, Grand Valley State Univ.; Evidence and Religious Belief) discussion falls into the latter. These cognitive devices produce beliefs that occur immediately and without inference or argument. Clark maintains that both intuition and inference produce generally reliable (albeit fallible) beliefs, and that cognitive artifact arguments discounting belief (or disbelief) in God often come down to suppressed intuitive biases. Clark concludes that, at least for now, belief or disbelief in God’s existence is rational.