March 26, 2016

March 26, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In “Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior” ( 2009) Strand quotes Hood & Merton (1948) and Tillich (1957), who describe that the “foundation of faith is based on private, personal experiences; not socially mediates ones.” These authors state “these personal experiences are the truest and most genuine expressions of faith, out of which less genuine, acquired expressions arise.” Merton and Tillich are not behaviorists and therefore they don’t and can’t explain our religious experience in terms of verbal behavior. Instead, they describe this experience as caused by an inner self. 

Merton and Tillich acknowledge “not all religious behavior is equal” and distinguishe between “acquired religious behavior” that is “motivated by and can be understood in terms of social contingencies” and “foundational religious behavior”, which “falls outside the control of socially mediated reinforcement.” Note, that the former is explained from an environmental or behaviorist perspective, while the latter is explained from a behavior-causing inner agent perspective.  However, any behaviorist would say that Merton and Tillich are of course both determined by environmental variables. 

Schoenfield (1993), a behaviorist, rejected “the notion of a non-social personal-experiential foundation of faith.”  Dawkins (2006), who is not a behaviorist, stated   “those behaviors that involve faith – that disregard reason – [that] are really pernicious.” Religious behavior remains a conundrum as religious scholars, writers, continued to identify “faith” or “believing the incredible” as “a foundational expression” (Chesterton, 1986). 

Strand writes that “a complete scientific account of religious behavior” can be accomplished by his writing, but this writer insists that we must talk instead of write about religious experience in order to become clear about it. The only way in which we will be able to talk coherently about our diverse religious experiences is when we achieve Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), the spoken communication that is based on the absence of aversive stimulation. There is nothing incredible about religious experience once we talk about it.