As persuasive as the cognitive theory of religion may be, it fails to answer our initial question: Why does Eve think she has a soul in the first place? HADD may explain why Eve stops in her tracks when she sees the tree and why she thinks it has a face. Theory of Mind may explain why she would ascribe her own soul to the tree, giving it an animating spirit and transforming it into an object of worship that could then be passed on to her community. These cognitive processes have the ability to fortify and encourage already held belief systems. But they cannot, by themselves, create belief. For
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