Religion In Human Evolution

Religion In Human Evolution Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Religion In Human Evolution book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Religion in Human Evolution

Robert N. Bellah
Religion in Human Evolution Book PDF

Author : Robert N. Bellah
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 777 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2017-05-08
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780674252936

Get Book

Religion in Human Evolution by Robert N. Bellah Pdf

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal

Religion in Human Evolution

Robert N. Bellah
Religion in Human Evolution Book PDF

Author : Robert N. Bellah
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 777 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2011-09-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780674063099

Get Book

Religion in Human Evolution by Robert N. Bellah Pdf

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal

The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution

Margaret Boone Rappaport,Christopher J. Corbally
The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution Book PDF

Author : Margaret Boone Rappaport,Christopher J. Corbally
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-12-09
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781000760552

Get Book

The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution by Margaret Boone Rappaport,Christopher J. Corbally Pdf

Religious capacity is a highly elaborate, neurocognitive human trait that has a solid evolutionary foundation. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to describe millions of years of biological innovations that eventually give rise to the modern trait and its varied expression in humanity’s many religions. The authors present a scientific model and a central thesis that the brain organs, networks, and capacities that allowed humans to survive physically also gave our species the ability to create theologies, find sustenance in religious practice, and use religion to support the social group. Yet, the trait of religious capacity remains non-obligatory, like reading and mathematics. The individual can choose not to use it. The approach relies on research findings in nine disciplines, including the work of countless neuroscientists, paleoneurologists, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists. This is a cutting-edge examination of the evolutionary origins of humanity’s interaction with the supernatural. It will be of keen interest to academics working in Religious Studies, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, and Psychology.

Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion

Matt J. Rossano
Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion Book PDF

Author : Matt J. Rossano
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2020-10-04
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781000175950

Get Book

Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion by Matt J. Rossano Pdf

This book explores the role of ritual in social life, human evolution, and religion. It explains the functions and purpose of varied rituals across the world by arguing they are mechanisms of ‘resource management’, providing a descriptive tool for understanding rituals and generating predictions about ritual survival. By showing how rituals have resulted from the need to cultivate social resources necessary to sustain cooperative groups, Rossano presents a unique examination of the function of rituals and how they cultivate, mobilize, and direct psychological resources. Rossano examines rituals from a diverse range of historical contexts, including the Greco-Romans, Soviet Russians, and those in ‘crisis cults’. The book shows how rituals address societal and community problems by cultivating three psychological resources – commitment to communal values, goodwill (both of humans and supernatural agents) and social support or social capital. Holding communities together in the face of threat, disaster, or apathy is one of ritual’s primary functions, and the author describes how our ancestors used ritual to become the highly social, inter-dependent primate that is Homo sapiens. Including examples from all over the world and providing detailed descriptions of both past and current ritual practices, this is fascinating reading for students and academics in psychology, sociology, religion, anthropology, and sociology.

The Emergence and Evolution of Religion

Jonathan H. Turner,Alexandra Maryanski,Anders Klostergaard Petersen,Armin W. Geertz
The Emergence and Evolution of Religion Book PDF

Author : Jonathan H. Turner,Alexandra Maryanski,Anders Klostergaard Petersen,Armin W. Geertz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2017-08-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351620697

Get Book

The Emergence and Evolution of Religion by Jonathan H. Turner,Alexandra Maryanski,Anders Klostergaard Petersen,Armin W. Geertz Pdf

Written by leading theorists and empirical researchers, this book presents new ways of addressing the old question: Why did religion first emerge and then continue to evolve in all human societies? The authors of the book—each with a different background across the social sciences and humanities—assimilate conceptual leads and empirical findings from anthropology, evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, neurology, primate behavioral studies, explanations of human interaction and group dynamics, and a wide range of religious scholarship to construct a deeper and more powerful explanation of the origins and subsequent evolutionary development of religions than can currently be found in what is now vast literature. While explaining religion has been a central question in many disciplines for a long time, this book draws upon a much wider array of literature to develop a robust and cross-disciplinary analysis of religion. The book remains true to its subtitle by emphasizing an array of both biological and sociocultural forms of selection dynamics that are fundamental to explaining religion as a universal institution in human societies. In addition to Darwinian selection, which can explain the biology and neurology of religion, the book outlines a set of four additional types of sociocultural natural selection that can fill out the explanation of why religion first emerged as an institutional system in human societies, and why it has continued to evolve over the last 300,000 years of societal evolution. These sociocultural forms of natural selection are labeled by the names of the early sociologists who first emphasized them, and they can be seen as a necessary supplement to the type of natural selection theorized by Charles Darwin. Explanations of religion that remain in the shadow cast by Darwin’s great insights will, it is argued, remain narrow and incomplete when explaining a robust sociocultural phenomenon like religion.

Religion Explained

Pascal Boyer
Religion Explained Book PDF

Author : Pascal Boyer
Publisher : Random House
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2008-12-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781407020877

Get Book

Religion Explained by Pascal Boyer Pdf

Why are there religious beliefs in all cultures? Do they have features in common and why does religion persist in the face of science? Pascal Boyer shows how experimental findings in cognitive science, evolutionary biology and cultural anthropology are now providing precise answers to these general questions, and providing, for the first time, real answers to the question: Why do we believe?

How Religion Evolved

Robin Dunbar
How Religion Evolved Book PDF

Author : Robin Dunbar
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2022-04-07
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780241431801

Get Book

How Religion Evolved by Robin Dunbar Pdf

A fascinating analysis of the evolution of religion from the internationally renowned evolutionary psychologist When did humans develop spiritual thought? What is religion's evolutionary purpose? And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured? Every society in the history of humanity has lived with religion. In How Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar tracks its origins back to what he terms the 'mystical stance' - the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual possible. As he explores world religions and their many derivatives, as well as religions of experience practised by hunter-gatherer societies since time immemorial, Dunbar argues that this instinct is not a peculiar human quirk, an aberration on our otherwise efficient evolutionary journey. Rather, religion confers an advantage: it can benefit our individual health and wellbeing, but, more importantly, it fosters social bonding at large scale, helping hold fractious societies together. Dunbar suggests these dimensions might provide the basis for an overarching theory for why and how humans are religious, and so help unify the myriad strands that currently populate this field. Drawing on path-breaking research, clinical case studies and fieldwork from around the globe, as well as stories of charismatic cult leaders, mysterious sects and lost faiths, How Religion Evolved offers a fascinating and far-reaching analysis of this quintessentially human impulse - to believe.

Evolutionary Processes in the Natural History of Religion

Hansjörg Hemminger
Evolutionary Processes in the Natural History of Religion Book PDF

Author : Hansjörg Hemminger
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2021-09-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783030704087

Get Book

Evolutionary Processes in the Natural History of Religion by Hansjörg Hemminger Pdf

The study of religion by the humanities and social sciences has become receptive for an evolutionary perspective. Some proposals model the evolution of religion in Darwinian terms, or construct a synergy between biological and non-Darwinian processes. The results, however, have not yet become truly interdisciplinary. The biological theory of evolution in form of the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) is only sparsely represented in theories published so far by scholars of religion. Therefore this book reverses the line of view and asks how their results assort with evolutionary biology: How can the subject area “religion” integrated into behavioral biology? How is theory building affected by the asymmetry between the scarce empirical knowledge of prehistoric religion, and the body of knowledge about extant and historic religions? How does hominin evolution in general relate to the evolution of religion? Are there evolutionary pre-adaptations? Subsequent versions of evolutionary biology from the original Darwinism to EES are used in interdisciplinary constructs. Can they be integrated into a comprehensive theory? The biological concept most often used is co-evolution, in form of a gene-culture co-evolution. However, the term denotes a process different from biological co-evolution. Important EES concepts do not appear in present models of religious evolution: e.g. neutral evolution, evolutionary drift, evolutionary constraints etc. How to include them into an interdisciplinary approach? Does the cognitive science of religion (CSR) harmonize with behavioral biology and the brain sciences? Religion as part of human culture is supported by a complex, multi-level behavioral system. How can it be modeled scientifically? The book addresses graduate students and researchers concerned about the scientific study of religion, and biologist interested in interdisciplinary theory building in the field.

Why We Believe

Agustin Fuentes
Why We Believe Book PDF

Author : Agustin Fuentes
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780300249255

Get Book

Why We Believe by Agustin Fuentes Pdf

A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief—the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea—is central to the human way of being in the world.

Cultural Evolution

Peter J. Richerson,Morten H. Christiansen
Cultural Evolution Book PDF

Author : Peter J. Richerson,Morten H. Christiansen
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 499 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2024-04-30
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780262551908

Get Book

Cultural Evolution by Peter J. Richerson,Morten H. Christiansen Pdf

Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. To remedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, and economics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects of human endeavor. The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea that cultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines of the human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a cultural evolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language, and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience of technology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate current research on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications, synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts. Contributors Quentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, Robert Boyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, Michael Cysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter François, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz, Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J. Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, Laurent Lehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, Ara Norenzayan, Harriet Over, Jürgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-García, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan, Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs Van Veelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson

The Axial Age and Its Consequences

Robert N. Bellah,Hans Joas
The Axial Age and Its Consequences Book PDF

Author : Robert N. Bellah,Hans Joas
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 561 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2012-10-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780674067400

Get Book

The Axial Age and Its Consequences by Robert N. Bellah,Hans Joas Pdf

This book makes the bold claim that intellectual sophistication was born worldwide during the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. From Axial Age thinkers we inherited a sense of the world as a place not just to experience but to investigate, envision, and alter. A variety of utopian visions emerged and led to both reform and repression.

Evolution and Religion

Michael Ruse
Evolution and Religion Book PDF

Author : Michael Ruse
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 153 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2008-05-13
Category : Science
ISBN : 0742564622

Get Book

Evolution and Religion by Michael Ruse Pdf

One in the series New Dialogues in Philosophy, edited by Dale Jacquette, Michael Ruse, a leading expert on Charles Darwin, presents a fictional dialogue among characters with sharply contrasting positions regarding the tensions between science and religious belief. Ruse's main characters—an atheist scientist, a skeptical historian and philosopher of science, a relatively liberal female Episcopalian priest, and a Southern Baptist pastor who denies evolution—passionately argue about pressing issues, in a context framed within a television show: 'Science versus God— Who is Winning?' These characters represent the different positions concerning science and religion often held today: evolution versus creation, the implications of Christian beliefs upon technological advances in medicine, and the everlasting debate over free will.

Evolution and Christian Faith

Joan Roughgarden
Evolution and Christian Faith Book PDF

Author : Joan Roughgarden
Publisher : Island Press
Page : 167 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2006-08-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781597261579

Get Book

Evolution and Christian Faith by Joan Roughgarden Pdf

Click here to visit evolutionandchristianfaith.org "I'm an evolutionary biologist and a Christian," states Stanford professor Joan Roughgarden at the outset of her groundbreaking new book, Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist. From that perspective, she offers an elegant, deeply satisfying reconciliation of the theory of evolution and the wisdom of the Bible. Perhaps only someone with Roughgarden's unique academic standing could examine so well controversial issues such as the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, or the potential flaws in Darwin's theory of evolution. Certainly Roughgarden is uniquely suited to reference both the minutiae of scientific processes and the implication of Biblical verses. Whether the topic is mutation rates and lizards or the hidden meanings behind St. Paul's letters, Evolution and Christian Faith distils complex arguments into everyday understanding. Roughgarden has scoured the Bible and scanned the natural world, finding examples time and again, not of conflict, but of harmony. The result is an accessible and intelligent context for a Christian vision of the world that embraces science. In the ongoing debates over creationism and evolution, Evolution and Christian Faith will be seen as a work of major significance, written for contemporary readers who wonder how-or if-they can embrace scientific advances while maintaining their traditional values.

Darwin's Cathedral

David Wilson
Darwin s Cathedral Book PDF

Author : David Wilson
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 277 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2010-09-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226901374

Get Book

Darwin's Cathedral by David Wilson Pdf

One of the great intellectual battles of modern times is between evolution and religion. Until now, they have been considered completely irreconcilable theories of origin and existence. David Sloan Wilson's Darwin's Cathedral takes the radical step of joining the two, in the process proposing an evolutionary theory of religion that shakes both evolutionary biology and social theory at their foundations. The key, argues Wilson, is to think of society as an organism, an old idea that has received new life based on recent developments in evolutionary biology. If society is an organism, can we then think of morality and religion as biologically and culturally evolved adaptations that enable human groups to function as single units rather than mere collections of individuals? Wilson brings a variety of evidence to bear on this question, from both the biological and social sciences. From Calvinism in sixteenth-century Geneva to Balinese water temples, from hunter-gatherer societies to urban America, Wilson demonstrates how religions have enabled people to achieve by collective action what they never could do alone. He also includes a chapter considering forgiveness from an evolutionary perspective and concludes by discussing how all social organizations, including science, could benefit by incorporating elements of religion. Religious believers often compare their communities to single organisms and even to insect colonies. Astoundingly, Wilson shows that they might be literally correct. Intended for any educated reader, Darwin's Cathedral will change forever the way we view the relations among evolution, religion, and human society.

Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies

Colin Renfrew,Iain Morley,Michael Boyd
Ritual Play and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies Book PDF

Author : Colin Renfrew,Iain Morley,Michael Boyd
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 355 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781107143562

Get Book

Ritual, Play, and Belief in Evolution and Early Human Societies by Colin Renfrew,Iain Morley,Michael Boyd Pdf

This book presents unique new insights into the development of human ritual and society through our heritage of play and performance.