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It's perhaps also worth noting that magical thinking is essentially infantile because it places the thinker in the center of the universe, which is how a small child's brain works. In theory we should learn more adequate modes of reasoning as we grow older, but sadly most people age without ever actually growing up. Hence superstition, religiosity, etc. As most people never grow out of magical thinking, an interesting question therefore is: why do a few people sporadically demonstrate rational thinking? There has been so little selection pressure to favor the development of this faculty that we really ought to wonder how it arises in the brains of a small percentage of individuals.

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Allan Milne Lees
Allan Milne Lees

Written by Allan Milne Lees

Anyone who enjoys my articles here on Medium may be interested in my books Why Democracy Failed and The Praying Ape, both available from Amazon.

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