In Chapter 7 Barrett asserts that if you believe in the existence of “minds,” (yours, and others’) then you can believe in the existence of gods, or better yet, God. No scientific evidence exists that proves people have minds. (p. 95) Minds, he says, are not accessible to direct investigation, and have not been proven to exist. The brain can be scientifically explored – observed, weighed, measured, experimented with. But the mind – that’s something else.
Why then do we believe in “minds?” We do intuitively – universally, and tenaciously Barrett says. We just know. We see evidence of what minds do – but we can’t look at a mind, as we can a brain. Further, says Barrett: if we can believe in the existence of “minds” without any empirical evidence, why not God too – a divine “mind” for which we have no empirical evidence, but that our minds quickly, naturally, seemingly inevitably, and almost universally want to believe in.
He concludes Chapter 7 with challenging scientists (by this I understand Barrett to mean someone who adopts a solely empirical approach to what is real; see his definition of "scientism" below) to be consistent. For example, when a person denies that people can willfully do anything but still hold their children responsible for “willful” disobedience. (p. 104)
Barrett gives another great summary at the end of the chapter, p 104. He states his most direct criticism of the followers of “scientism” - These same scientists who reflexively assert that belief in any and all gods is unwarrented on scientific grounds blindly ingnore the countless other beliefs they hold near and dear that find themselves in the same scientific predicament as God. (p. 105)
Chapter 8 begins with a summary of his entire thesis. Thus, believing in God is a natural, almost inevitable consequence of the types of minds we have living in the sort of world we inhabit, similar to why it si that people almost universally believe in minds of humans and many animals. (p 108)
He then addresses the question, "If theism is so natural, how do you explain the existence of atheism?" Being an atheist, he says, is not easy. (p 108) You have to overcome a number of factors that have led most of humankind to believe in gods.
At the end of Chapter 8 Barrett talks about scientism – the worldview dedicated to the notion that science ultimately can answer all questions and solve all problems. (p 118)
And on that same page those helpful words again . . . To summarize . . . Including these provocative words: Only privileged minorities enjoy atheism. If religion is the opiate of the masses, atheism is a luxury of the elite. . . . Religious belief is the natural backdrop to the oddity that is atheism.
“In Conclusion” is Chapter 9 where Barrett addresses the objections that religion exists largely because it has been spread by threat (of hell) and by force of arms. Nor do people, he says, believe in God because of “mystical experiences.” On page 123 he admits that people for the other side of the fence from him (atheists) may well use the findings of cognitive science, and Barrett’s own arguments, to support their conclusion, and not his. He does not argue with that – he has not been trying in his book to prove the existence of God, but only to show that belief in gods is quite natural. Whether God exists cannot be proven (or disproven) by science. Metaphysical concerns such as this remain in the domain of philosophy. (p 123) We will hear this argument again in Jay Gould’s book, Rocks of Ages.
His concluding statement: Why would anyone believe in God? The design of our minds leads us to believe.
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