Mind And Religion

Author : Jensine Andresen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2001-06-28
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780521801522

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Religion in Mind by Jensine Andresen Pdf

Religion in Mind is a 2001 text which summarizes and extends the advances in the cognitive study of religion throughout the 1990s. It uses empirical research from psychology and anthropology to illuminate various components of religious belief, ritual, and experience. The book examines cognitive dimensions of religion within a naturalistic view of culture, while respecting the phenomenology of religion and drawing together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion, and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors focus on phenomena such as belief-fixation and transmission; attributions of agency; anthropomorphizing; counterintuitive religious representations; the well-formedness of religious rituals; links between religious representations and emotions; and the development of god concepts. The work encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages between scholars from different fields and will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also will interest more general readers in religion and science.

Author : Ninian Smart
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 1987-01-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0887063829

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Religion and the Western Mind by Ninian Smart Pdf

Ninian Smart believes that the modern study of religion should occur in the context of a radical reappraisal of our educational system. This is a worldview analysis of religion appropriate to today's global city. It attacks narrowness whether found in Western philosophy or Christian theology, and argues for a disestablishmentarian stance. Religion and the Western Mind presents the explosive possibilities of religions -- of world views that have the power to shape history. It offers a theory regarding the need of nations for religious justifications. It examines three fundamental backlashes: the Moral Majority, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Gush Emunim. It looks at the contrasting Indian and Sri Lankan responses to Western influence and delineates the Indian tradition in a new way. And finally it diagnoses the future, exploring the ethical inferences of the worldview and supporting a position that runs like a thread through this book.

Author : Jonathan Haidt
Publisher : Vintage
Page : 530 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2013-02-12
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780307455772

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The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt Pdf

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The acclaimed social psychologist challenges conventional thinking about morality, politics, and religion in a way that speaks to conservatives and liberals alike—a “landmark contribution to humanity’s understanding of itself” (The New York Times Book Review). Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns. In this subtle yet accessible book, Haidt gives you the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation, as well as the curse of our eternal divisions and conflicts. If you’re ready to trade in anger for understanding, read The Righteous Mind.

Author : Todd Tremlin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2006-03-02
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780199885466

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Minds and Gods by Todd Tremlin Pdf

Around the world and throughout history, in cultures as diverse as ancient Mesopotamia and modern America, human beings have been compelled by belief in gods and developed complex religions around them. But why? What makes belief in supernatural beings so widespread? And why are the gods of so many different people so similar in nature? This provocative book explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas by looking through the lens of science at the common structures and functions of human thought. The first general introduction to the "cognitive science of religion," Minds and Gods presents the major themes, theories, and thinkers involved in this revolutionary new approach to human religiosity. Arguing that we cannot understand what we think until we first understand how we think, the book sets out to study the evolutionary forces that modeled the modern human mind and continue to shape our ideas and actions today. Todd Tremlin details many of the adapted features of the brain -- illustrating their operation with examples of everyday human behavior -- and shows how mental endowments inherited from our ancestral past lead many people to naturally entertain religious ideas. In short, belief in gods and the social formation of religion have their genesis in biology, in powerful cognitive processes that all humans share. In the course of illuminating the nature of religion, this book also sheds light on human nature: why we think we do the things we do and how the reasons for these things are so often hidden from view. This discussion ranges broadly across recent scientific findings in areas such as paleoanthropology, primate studies, evolutionary psychology, early brain development, and cultural transmission. While these subjects are complex, the story is told here in a conversational style that is engaging, jargon free, and accessible to all readers. With Minds and Gods , Tremlin offers a roadmap to a fascinating and growing field of study, one that is sure to generate interest and debate and provide readers with a better understanding of themselves and their beliefs.

Author : Volney P. Gay
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0739133926

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Neuroscience and Religion by Volney P. Gay Pdf

This is a unique set of multidisciplinary reflections on how the neurosciences shape our understanding of religious experience and religious institutions. Twelve scholars and scientists assess how advances in the neurosciences affect our traditional sense of mind, self, and soul.

Author : Todd Tremlin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 243 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2010-05-07
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780199739011

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Minds and Gods by Todd Tremlin Pdf

This provocative book explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas on the basis of common structures and functions of human thought. The first general introduction to the new "cognitive science of religion," Minds and Gods presents the major themes, theories, and thinkers involved in this revolutionary new approach to human religiosity. Arguing that we cannot understand what we think until we first understand how we think, the book pursues the evolutionary forces that molded the modern human mind and continue to shape our ideas and actions today. Todd Tremlin details many of the adapted features of the brain - illustrating their operation with examples of everyday human behavior - and shows how mental endowments inherited from our ancestral past lead people to naturally entertain religious ideas. Tremlin provides a clear and comprehensive account of the developing field of the cognitive science of religion. This accessible and engaging volume is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the religious mind.

Author : Eugene Webb
Publisher : University of Missouri Press
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780826271952

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Worldview and Mind by Eugene Webb Pdf

"Looking at a broad spectrum of religions, Webb examines the relation between religion and modernity and explores what psychological analysis reveals about the relationship between stages of psychological development and ways of being religious that range from closed-minded to open-minded tolerance"--Provided by publisher.

Author : Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0759106193

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Mind and Religion by Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley Pdf

This collection examines new psychological evidence for the modal theory and attempts to synthesize this theory with other theories of cognition and religion.

Author : Kelly Bulkeley
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2005-07-08
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781135949433

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The Wondering Brain by Kelly Bulkeley Pdf

This book argues that the profounded questions raised by cognitive neuroscience may best be answered through a dialogue with religion.

Author : W. H. Capitan,D. D. Merrill
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
Page : 159 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 1967-03-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780822975632

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Art, Mind, and Religion by W. H. Capitan,D. D. Merrill Pdf

This volume offers an unusual variety of topics presented during the sixth annual Oberlin Colloquium in Philosophy. The subjects covered include: refuting J. L. Austin's attempt to destroy philosophers' assumptions on the nature and purpose of a “statement;” false premises found in “St. Anselm's Four Ontological Arguments;” pain in connection with brain-state and functional-state theories; aesthetics in light of questions of fraudulence in modern art and music, and an analytical deconstruction of mystical experience.

Author : Stephen T. Asma
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2018-05-09
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190469696

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Why We Need Religion by Stephen T. Asma Pdf

How we feel is as vital to our survival as how we think. This claim, based on the premise that emotions are largely adaptive, serves as the organizing theme of Why We Need Religion. This book is a novel pathway in a well-trodden field of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Stephen Asma argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime--we can feel the sacred depths of nature--but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. No theorist of religion has failed to notice the importance of emotions in spiritual and ritual life, but truly systematic research has only recently delivered concrete data on the neurology, psychology, and anthropology of the emotional systems. This very recent "affective turn" has begun to map out a powerful territory of embodied cognition. Why We Need Religion incorporates new data from these affective sciences into the philosophy of religion. It goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work. In short, the book is a Darwinian defense of religious emotions and the cultural systems that manage them.

Author : William Downes
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2010-11-25
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781139494939

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Language and Religion by William Downes Pdf

Language and Religion offers an innovative theory of religion as a class of cultural representations, dependent on language to unify diverse capacities of the human mind. It argues that religion is widespread because it is implicit in the way the mind processes the world, as it determines what we ought to do, practically and morally, to achieve our goals. Focusing on the world religions, the book relates modern cognitive theories of language and communication to culture and its dissemination. It explains basic features of religion such as the supernatural, the normative, abstract and ideal theological concepts such as 'God', and religious feeling. It develops a linguistic theory, based on how utterances are understood, of metaphysical and moral 'mysteries' and their key role in thought and action. It shows how such concepts gain strength in the light of their successful use and, when tempered by criticism, can also have genuine authority.

Author : Walter Terence Stace
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 328 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 1960
Category : Religion
ISBN : UOM:49015000966193

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Religion and the Modern Mind by Walter Terence Stace Pdf

Author : James K. Boehnlein
Publisher : American Psychiatric Publishing
Page : 232 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Medical
ISBN : UOM:39015048592961

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Psychiatry and Religion by James K. Boehnlein Pdf

Divided into three parts, this volume considers theoretical principles and trends, clinical perspectives, and the future relationship of psychiatry and religion. In addition to offering both historical and current perspectives on psychiatry and the major world religions, this book addresses topics rarely discussed in psychiatric literature.

Author : Patrick McNamara Ph.D.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 918 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2006-09-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780313054761

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Where God and Science Meet by Patrick McNamara Ph.D. Pdf

Spiritual practices, or awakenings, have an impact on brain, mind and personality. These changes are being scientifically predicted and proven. For example, studies show Buddhist priests and Franciscan nuns at the peak of religious feelings show a functional change in the lobes of their brain. Similar processes have been found in people with epilepsy, which Hippocrates called the sacred disease. New research is showing that not only does a person's brain activity change in particular areas while that person is experiencing religious epiphany, but such events can be created for some people, even self-professed atheists, by stimulating various parts of the brain. In this far-reaching and novel set, experts from across the nation and around the world present evolutionary, neuroscientific, and psychological approaches to explaining and exploring religion, including the newest findings and evidence that have spurred the fledgling field of neurotheology. It is not the goal of neurotheology to prove or disprove the existence of God, but to understand the biology of spiritual experiences. Such experiences seem to exist outside time and space - caused by the brain for some reason losing its perception of a boundary between physical body and outside world - and could help explain other intangible events, such as altered states of consciousness, possessions, alien visitations, near-death experiences and out-of-body events. Understanding them - as well as how and why these abilities evolved in the brain - could also help us understand how religion contributes to survival of the human race. Eminent contributors to this set help us answer questions including: How does religion better our brain function? What is the difference between a religious person and a terrorist who kills in the name of religion? Is there one site or function in the brain necessary for religious experience?