RC#4

In the 'God Delusion' Richard Dawkins talks about our inherent psychological tendency towards logical

fallacies. He references cargo cults, tribes that formed superstitious beliefs around the arrival of US soldiers

upon their islands. They believed that communicating on the radio, and marching in unison were all rituals

that brought precious gifts from the heavens in the form of supplies that came in by airplane to the island.

They saw what to them looked like strange ceremonial dancing when the soldiers were marching, and their

logic was that this was a ritual to be performed to please the gods who then bought goods beyond their

wildest dreams. They saw that A came before B, and made the logical fallacy that A caused B.

Genus Homo have possessed logical reasoning skills for millennia, however we have not always possessed

the knowledge upon which to base them. Logic works when based in knowledge, and this is an evolutionary

advantage. When our ancestors saw the prints of an animal in the sand, they had the capacity of

understanding that an animal had been there - and this was reasoning based upon knowledge, we knew

what kind of prints a certain animal would make, and we could deduce from seeing the print which direction

the animal was going in . This was useful in both hunting and avoiding predators.

As our knowledge increased we realized what causes disease, and what can be done to prevent it, we

know how to engineer our way out of famine with our knowledge of crops and fertilizers. The failed logic of

old has been abandoned. Logic is a powerful tool when combined with knowledge, but without it, it can

misfire and lead one to believe things that are unreasonable, and often harmful.

The fact that superstition is so prevalent in our species would seem to suggest that it is of evolutionary

origin, and this is something that Dawkins discusses in the God Delusion. He argues that we have

an intuitive dualism - which is the propensity to believe that there is a separation between the mind and

body. Stating that dualists have a tendency to "personify inanimate physical objects at the slightest

opportunity, seeing spirits and demons even in waterfalls and clouds." He talks about how we assign

agents where there are none, getting angry at traffic lights as though they are personally out to get you, for

example.

Knowledge and reason are the best tools we have for advancing our species both morally and scientifically.

Superstition causes many people to act in ways that a person possessing the facts simply could not.

People who believe crystals have magic properties, people who believe that certain diets can cure cancer,

people who believe that homosexuality is an abomination, people who believe in ridiculous conspiracy

theories... The list goes on. None of these beliefs are based in knowledge, and the logic behind them is

flawed. It's time to move on, we don't need to appease gods in order to ensure we won't get smallpox; we

conquered it with the practical application of knowledge and reason.

35. The author gives the example of the Cargo Cults to highlight which of the following?

(a) Understanding the wider picture does not necessarily lead to knowledge.

(b) What we see may sometimes not be what we are meant to see.

(c) Understanding without knowledge leads to logic becoming a fallacy.

(d) All of the above

36. The main idea of the passage is to

(a) explain the reason behind superstition and to denounce it.

(b) welcome the realization that failed logic is not good.

(c) highlight that logic is powerful when combined with knowledge.

(d) explain how dualism sometimes misleads us in absence of logic.

37. Which of the following behaviors is the author not likely to label superstitious?

(a) A cricketer blaming the number on his jersey for missing out on a century.

(b) A student blaming his/her leaking pen for failure in exams.

(c) A doctor certifying to the healing touch of prayers.

(d) None of the above