Caveman Logic

The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World

Hank Davis

Prometheus Books 2010

Why do we insist on maintaining superstitions and beliefs that may have had some application in our caveman days but are now out of touch with reality? Our ancestors cooked up these ideas to explain what they saw around them but why do the ideas persist today in the face of better evidence?

Hank Davis is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Guelph in Ontario. His specialist area is behavioural science and popular culture. His background makes him ideally suited to comment on what he calls “Caveman Logic”. He does this in a witty, easily readable style well illustrated with examples from his experience. He can make us laugh at ourselves if the subject matter was not so important.

Religion is a prime target. It persists in spite of total lack of proof because it has a good marketing and PR organization in the form of the various churches that market God to the masses. The Causal effect (it’s someone else’s fault) appeals to those who can’t or won’t evaluate the evidence for themselves. Carl Sagan pointed out that many people shop for a belief system for the comfort that it brings then adopt that belief system uncritically.

Strangely God supports both sides in war after war. Blind belief (caveman logic) is the cornerstone of religion. If God didn’t answer your prayers it is because YOU were at fault for not praying or believing hard enough. There is something incongruous about disaster survivors thanking God for their survival but not castigating him for the lives that were lost, as followed Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Obviously someone among the ones who died deserved it and the others were just unlucky enough to become God’s collateral damage.

Even more incongruous is the separation of church and state enshrined in the U.S. constitution, but ignored in so many ways. U.S. paper money has “In God We Trust” as part of its design and politicians have found it expedient to end their speeches with “God Bless America”. George W Bush on his inauguration day as Governor of Texas is quoted as saying “I believe that God wants me to be President”. The man who apparently had personal conversations in which God imparted his wishes went on the become President and the U.S. is still trying to extricate itself from the mess. Even more ludicrous, Ronald Reagan made most of his important decisions on the basis of astrological readings. With leadership like that is it any wonder America is becoming one of the most religious yet irrational states in the world? And we won’t even touch Creationism. Neither will most U.S. academics.

Miracles and signs from God are an area where Davis really gets into his stride. How many miracles are actually “miraculous” rather than just coincidence? Coincidences DO happen and Davis gives some quite detailed accounts of experiences that caveman logic would otherwise express as a miracle but which have a valid statistical base as normal happenings.

Anthropomorphism, the act of attributing human values to inanimate objects, lives on. Have you ever said “My computer is out to get me – it fails just as this major assignment is due”? Do you treat your car like a person? Do you talk to your plants? These are all examples of surviving caveman logic that just won’t go away, no matter how ridiculous they are.

Supernatural beings are a form of caveman logic that still persists despite a complete absence of repeatable, verifiable evidence. Ghosts, spirits, unicorns and the like once infested belief systems but there is no excuse for them these days in spite of TV shows like “Ghost Whisperer”. To this list we can now add aliens in flying saucers. Davis quotes surveys that suggest that believers in the supernatural are either less bright than non-believers, or more importantly simply do not use their mental faculties to examine the evidence for themselves. Fortunately magic is no longer held in esteem since many magicians have made a living showing how the tricks are done.

From supernatural beings to pseudoscience is only a short step. Auras, crystal healing, fortune telling, astrology and “the ancient secrets of the East / Indians / Mayas / insert name of ethnic group here” all have their followers and believers. Many are caveman logic at its worst but practitioners still make a living out of it just as the shamans of old did.

So how do we change this? According to Davis it would not be easy. So many textbooks have been dumbed down so as not to offend any particular belief; so many administrators will do nothing controversial that may incur the wrath of religion. People seem to have a belief that it’s their right to be dumb but they pass that belief on to their kids. Instead of being taught critical thinking the kids are fed caveman logic at an early impressionable age and the training is hard to break. How do you train people to look for evidence to support or deny a statement? How do you use statistics to prove coincidence, not miracles? How do we break people from the habit of looking for a scapegoat (deity) to blame for sheer unfortunate coincidence? How do we encourage people to fight caveman logic when they want the comfort of belief, not the uncertainty of investigation?

“At present, we find ourselves in a situation in which at least 95% of people on the planet believe in some combination of ghosts, alien visitations, communication with the dead, astrology, and an all-powerful deity who screens and answers prayer requests. What incentive is there for this substantial majority to reconsider its beliefs?”

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