Dual Processing and the Magico-Religious Mindset

Abstract

Religious beliefs and practices require an appreciation of their source in the human mind that creates them. The key to that understanding is Dual Processing, the fact that the cognitive system has developed two ways of perceiving and thinking, now conventionally referred to as the older automatic primary processing (S1), and the more recently developed controlled analytical processing (S2). Both magical and religious beliefs and practices are strongly related to the S1 automatic primary processing system which is explained by the fact that the major elements of religious phenomenology are all based on S1 processing. Major implications are that (a) it explains current survey results showing strong ongoing belief in religious, magical and paranormal phenomena, and (b) that this tallies somewhat with the notion regarding the existence of a natural spiritual faculty or disposition, first promulgated by John Calvin and promoted within the academic academy ever since.