Abstract

The Cognitive Basis of Stupidity shows that the mechanism of belief in supernatural and cultural systems is one and the same. There is no difference in the way we belief in God or the government. We take both on faith and fit incoming data to suit our predispositions is they spiritual or secular. Contrary to Darwinian thinking, the basic cognitive mechanism of the mind is maladaptive in the long run and best presented as a normal, dysfunctional learning process which occurs when a schema formed by linguistic biases and social norms acts via the neurotic paradox to establish a positive feedback system which can render behavior irrelevant and carry detached actions to maladaptive excesses.