---
title: "Daniel Dennett on The argument from scripture"
description: "Dennett treated scripture as a cultural artefact that reveals the evolution of human thought, not the mind of God."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/daniel-dennett/on/argument-from-scripture
source: html
---

# Daniel Dennett on The argument from scripture

> Dennett treated scripture as a cultural artefact that reveals the evolution of human thought, not the mind of God.

Position

# Daniel Dennett on _The argument from scripture_

Argues againstPhilosopher and cognitive scientist

Dennett treated scripture as a cultural artefact that reveals the evolution of human thought, not the mind of God.

Dennett's approach to scripture was anthropological rather than theological. In Breaking the Spell, he argued that religious texts should be studied as products of cultural evolution — documents that survived and spread because they were effective at organising communities, transmitting moral norms, and providing psychological comfort, not because they were divinely inspired.

He applied the same evolutionary lens to the texts' content. The moral codes in scripture are not timeless truths but adaptive strategies for the societies that produced them. Some of these strategies (prohibitions on murder, norms of reciprocity) remain useful; others (endorsements of slavery, subordination of women) have been superseded by moral progress. The fact that we can sort the good from the bad demonstrates that our moral judgment is prior to — and more reliable than — the texts themselves.

Dennett was also interested in why scripture is treated as self-authenticating. He argued that the reverence accorded to holy books is itself a product of cultural evolution: communities that treated their founding texts as sacred and unchallengeable were more cohesive and more successful at propagating themselves. The 'authority' of scripture is not evidence of divine origin but evidence of effective memetic design.

Key quotes

> “The spell that I say must be broken is the taboo against a forthright, scientific, no-holds-barred investigation of religion as one natural phenomenon among many.”

Continue exploring

[

Daniel Dennett

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/daniel-dennett)[

The argument from scripture

The full argument — stated fairly, then answered.

](/arguments/argument-from-scripture)

---
_Canonical HTML version: https://opendoubt.com/people/daniel-dennett/on/argument-from-scripture_