Jesus Say, Monkey Do

Religion causes behavior. You have the religion, it tells you to to do things, and so you go out and do them. Jesus say, monkey do, or, that's the theory at least.

I don't buy it, simply because there's a difference between a cult leader demanding such sacrifice and sitting alone in a candle-lit basement believing that a stack of thin, leather bound sheafs of paper is demanding it. In one case, there's an actual cult leader, and in the second, well, that guy is batshit crazy and it wouldn't matter the focus of his insanity was a bible, 'religion', or a plastic bear filled with honey.


Even though I don't buy the usual theory, I'm going to take a crack at it anyway from a completely different point of view. Essentially, religion doesn't cause behavior, it shapes the metaphysical reality of the adherent.

Metaphysics, if you're not familiar with it, is the study of the nature of reality. It asks such fundamental questions as "What is the nature of reality?" (duh) and related questions like "Do monsters exist?" and "Are monsters real?".

These questions, of course, have a direct bearing on epistemological ( knowledge ) questions such as "Is there a monster in my closet?", because the metaphysical proposition "Are monsters real?" has to be taken to be true BEFORE someone can consider whether or not there's one in their closet.

In this way metaphysical beliefs define reality like the playing field of a sport or the board of a board game define their respective games. They define at a base level what sort of things can happen and what sorts of things you can do about it.

My conclusion is this: religion doesn't cause behavior, it shapes metaphysical reality which constrains behavior to what's possible within that sort of reality.

We all have out own metaphysical reality and act AS IF it were true. Someone would act the same AS IF there were a monster in their closet or a bear, as rationally as they could given the situation.