I found McGuire’s writings on the cognitive aspect in religion especially intriguing. The concept of something being real so as the person believes it’s real is a new perspective for me. Along with the Western concept mentioned in the text about religious beliefs not being viewed as empirical beliefs, my own experience with Christianity caused me to be defensive against this statement. Immediately I associated “cognitive aspect” with logic and proven fact and as someone who no longer finds logic in the faith I was raised in, my own defensiveness and bias came forward.

Upon reading and understanding the intent behind McGuire’s statement, I pretty clearly understood and could relate. I interpreted the section as explaining how truth can be individual, it doesn’t always present in the way we so often define it. Looking back on my religious experience, I saw how the things I believed were in a certain aspect true because they were true to my experience and the impact of that was very real.