6 Skilful Engagement and the ‘Efort ater Value’: An Axiological heory of the Origins of Religion NATHANIEL F. BARRETT INTRODUCTION: THE TURN FROM TRUTHFUL BELIEF TO VALUE-RICH ENGAGEMENT he philosopher Alfred North Whitehead is credited with saying that it is bet- ter to be interesting than to be true (1967, p. 244). Surely only a sheltered intellectual would endorse such a frivolous notion! Real life—that is, life out- side the ivory tower—presents us with hard facts that we neglect at our peril. It would be interesting to live in trees, for instance, but the force of gravity dictates otherwise. However, Whitehead’s point was not to derogate truth but to point out its dependence on value. Truths that lack value are hardly wor- thy of the name: they are supericial generalities and bland platitudes: trivial statements that give us little traction on the aforementioned facts of life. More substantial truths depend on the attainment of value-rich experience, because value is essential to engagement. he connection between value and engagement is easier to grasp once we have distinguished engagement from interpretation. Although our engage- ment with the world around us is intimately related to our beliefs about the world, they are not the same. Beliefs can be true or false, while engagement is better described as deep or shallow, wide or narrow, rich or poor. If we fail to engage something we are not so much mistaken about it as oblivious. Moreover it is possible to engage something and at the same time be mistaken about its meaning. For instance, in face-to-face conversation we oten engage non-verbal cues like body language and tone of voice without thinking about them, and when we do think about them we are sometimes mistaken about what they mean—taking nervousness for hostility, for example. But such OUP UNCORRECTED PROOF – FIRSTPROOFS, Tue Sep 03 2013, NEWGEN FraserWatts150513OUK.indd 92 FraserWatts150513OUK.indd 92 9/3/2013 1:59:05 PM 9/3/2013 1:59:05 PM