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Notes
1. The issue of whether, in the end, a communication is indeed from God is not excluded by this analysis. However, in this analysis, the path and form of the divine communication would be different. We agree with Luhrmann (2012, p. xv) when she states that, with respect to the existence of God: “I do not believe that social science—the study of the social life of humans—can answer these questions.” We would say the same of neuroscience.
2. While some religious persons might fear this to be a deconstructive argument leading to the reduction of religion to “nothing but” learned behavior, we suggest that it is the lived and embodied nature of religion that makes it a real and significant part of people's lives.
3. It is not that individuals who hold to a dualistic understanding of persons never acknowledge what they learn from others or the value of community, but we have argued that the inner and individualist slant that dualism conveys, privileging the inward soul over the material body, has consequences in being less intentional about the physical nature of religious formation, and in viewing community as a nice add-on to a religious life otherwise defined primarily by inner individual experiences.