In this episode of Taste of Truth Tuesdays, we sit down with philosopher and cognitive scientist Neil Van Leeuwen, author of Religion as Make-Believe 📚. Neil challenges how we think about religious belief, arguing that religious credence acts more like make-believe than factual belief—resistant to evidence and deeply tied to identity and group belonging.
We dive into:
Why your factual beliefs update but your religious ones often don’t 🍪
How prayer and rituals function as symbolic gestures rather than literal interventions 🙏
The role of sacred objects and actions in signaling group membership 🎭
Why practical solutions are sometimes ignored in favor of “the right signals”
How understanding religion as imaginative practice can help deconstruct belief without self-blame 🤝
The intersections between religious credence, politics, and hypocrisy 🗳️
Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion that will shift the way you see belief, identity, and human behavior.
Maintain your curiosity, embrace skepticism, and keep tuning in! 🎙️🔒
📘Please check Neil's book at Amazon or Harvard University Press and recommend it to your local library 🙂
🙏 Please help this podcast reach a larger audience in hope to edify & encourage others! To do so: leave a 5⭐️ review and send it to a friend! Thank you for listening! I’d love to hear from you, find me on Instagram! @taste0ftruth , @megan_mefit , Pinterest! and on X!
