Justin L. Barrett (born 1971) is anAmericanexperimental psychologist, founder and president of Blueprint 1543, a nonprofit organization. He formerly was the Director of the Thrive Center for Human Development inPasadena, California, Thrive Professor of Developmental Science, and Professor of Psychology at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology. He previously was a senior researcher and director of the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at theUniversity of Oxford.
Barrett earned a B.A. inpsychology fromCalvin College and a Ph.D in experimental psychology (cognitive and developmental focus) fromCornell University. He served on the psychology faculties of Calvin College and theUniversity of Michigan (Ann Arbor), and as a research fellow of theInstitute for Social Research.
Barrett is a founding editor of theJournal of Cognition & Culture and is author of numerous articles and chapters concerning thecognitive science of religion.[1][2]
Barrett is described in theNew York Times as a "prominent member of the byproduct camp" and "an observant Christian who believes in “an all-knowing, all-powerful, perfectly good God who brought the universe into being,” [and] “that the purpose for people is to love God and love each other.” He considers that “Christian theology teaches that people were crafted by God to be in a loving relationship with him and other people, Why wouldn’t God, then, design us in such a way as to find belief in divinity quite natural?” Having a scientific explanation for mental phenomena does not mean we should stop believing in them. “Suppose science produces a convincing account for why I think my wife loves me — should I then stop believing that she does?”[3]
In his bookWhy Would Anyone Believe in God? he suggests that "belief in God is an almost inevitable consequence of the kind of minds we have. Most of what we believe comes from mental tools working below our conscious awareness. And what we believe consciously is in large part driven by these unconscious beliefs." and "that beliefs in gods match up well with these automatic assumptions; beliefs in an all-knowing, all-powerful God match up even better."[4]
