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53 - Traditional Societies

from Part VII - Lived Atheism in the Twentieth- and Twenty-First Centuries: Case-Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2021

Michael Ruse
By
Benjamin Grant Purzycki  and
Richard Sosis
Edited by
Stephen Bullivant
Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Stephen Bullivant
Affiliation:
St Mary's University, Twickenham, London
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Summary

Anthropologist Jack Goody (1996, 679) noted that ‘Both gods and doubts are widespread, transversal (if not universal) aspects of culture, the result not of inbuilt processes but of the interaction between language-using human beings and their social and natural environment.’ There are two important points Goody conveys here. First, doubt – that is, reluctance or resistance to adopt received wisdom (see Box 53.1) – exists in all societies. Second, doubt does not exclusively spring from some internal faculty, but rather is the output of a complex set of inputs to an organism that produces, manipulates, and transmits ideas. In other words, doubt emerges as the product of a systemic process. One implication of this view is that doubt can express itself differently across contexts; if humans’ social and natural environments vary, it follows that doubt – as rising from their interaction – should exhibit itself in a corresponding fashion.

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The Cambridge History of Atheism , pp. 982 - 1004
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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