The Cognitive Science Of Religion

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An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion

Claire White
An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : Claire White
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03-14
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781351010955

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An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion by Claire White Pdf

In recent decades, a new scientific approach to understand, explain, and predict many features of religion has emerged. The cognitive science of religion (CSR) has amassed research on the forces that shape the tendency for humans to be religious and on what forms belief takes. It suggests that religion, like language or music, naturally emerges in humans with tractable similarities. This new approach has profound implications for how we understand religion, including why it appears so easily, and why people are willing to fight—and die—for it. Yet it is not without its critics, and some fear that scholars are explaining the ineffable mystery of religion away, or showing that religion is natural proves or disproves the existence of God. An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion offers students and general readers an accessible introduction to the approach, providing an overview of key findings and the debates that shape it. The volume includes a glossary of key terms, and each chapter includes suggestions for further thought and further reading as well as chapter summaries highlighting key points. This book is an indispensable resource for introductory courses on religion and a much-needed option for advanced courses.

The Cognitive Science of Religion

James A. Van Slyke
The Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : James A. Van Slyke
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 189 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781409421245

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The Cognitive Science of Religion by James A. Van Slyke Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is a relatively new academic field in the study of the origins and causes of religious belief and behaviour. The focal point of empirical research is the role of basic human cognitive functions in the formation and transmission of religious beliefs. However, many theologians and religious scholars are concerned that this perspective will reduce and replace explanations based in religious traditions, beliefs, and values. This book attempts to bridge the reductionist divide between science and religion through examination and critique of different aspects of the cognitive science of religion and offers a conciliatory approach that investigates the multiple causal factors involved in the emergence of religion.

How Religion Works

Ilkka Pyysiäinen
How Religion Works Book PDF

Author : Ilkka Pyysiäinen
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2021-10-11
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9789004496217

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How Religion Works by Ilkka Pyysiäinen Pdf

Recent findings in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology provide important insights to the processes which make religious beliefs and behaviors such efficient attractors in and across various cultural settings. The specific salience of religious ideas is based on the fact that they are 'counter-intuitive': they contradict our intuitive expectations of how entities normally behave. Counter-intuitive ideas are only produced by a mind capable of crossing the boundaries that separate such ontological domains as persons, living things, and solid objects. The evolution of such a mind has only taken place in the human species. How certain kinds of counter-intuitive ideas are selected for a religious use is discussed from varying angles. Cognitive considerations are thus related to the traditions of comparative religion. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

The Cognitive Science of Religion

D. Jason Slone,William W. McCorkle Jr.
The Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : D. Jason Slone,William W. McCorkle Jr.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2019-01-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781350033702

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The Cognitive Science of Religion by D. Jason Slone,William W. McCorkle Jr. Pdf

The Cognitive Science of Religion introduces students to key empirical studies conducted over the past 25 years in this new and rapidly expanding field. In these studies, cognitive scientists of religion have applied the theories, findings and research tools of the cognitive sciences to understanding religious thought, behaviour and social dynamics. Each chapter is written by a leading international scholar, and summarizes in non-technical language the original empirical study conducted by the scholar. No prior or statistical knowledge is presumed, and studies included range from the classic to the more recent and innovative cases. Students will learn about the theories that cognitive scientists have employed to explain recurrent features of religiosity across cultures and historical eras, how scholars have tested those theories, and what the results of those tests have revealed and suggest. Written to be accessible to undergraduates, this provides a much-needed survey of empirical studies in the cognitive science of religion.

Religion Explained

Pascal Boyer
Religion Explained Book PDF

Author : Pascal Boyer
Publisher : Random House
Page : 448 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2008-12-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781407020877

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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?

Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion

James Cresswell
Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : James Cresswell
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2017-10-30
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781315415192

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Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion by James Cresswell Pdf

Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion is the first book to bring together cultural psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Containing much-needed discussion of how good research should do more than simply follow methodological prescriptions, this thought-provoking and original book outlines the ways in which CSR can be used to study everyday religious belief without sacrificing psychological science. Cresswell’s pragmatist approach expands CSR in a radically new direction. The author shows how language and culture can be integrated within CSR in order to achieve an alternative ontogenetic and phylogenetic approach to cognition, and argues that a view of cognition that is not based on modularity, but on the dynamic connection between an organism and its milieu, can lead to a view of evolution that makes much more room for the constitutive role of culture in cognition. As a provocative attempt to persuade researchers to engage with religious communities more directly, the book should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students, as well as psychologists interested in the cognitive science of religion, theological anthropology, religious studies and cultural anthropology.

The Roots of Religion

Roger Trigg,Justin L. Barrett
The Roots of Religion Book PDF

Author : Roger Trigg,Justin L. Barrett
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2016-02-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317016939

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The Roots of Religion by Roger Trigg,Justin L. Barrett Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is a new discipline that looks at the roots of religious belief in the cognitive architecture of the human mind. The Roots of Religion deals with the philosophical and theological implications of the cognitive science of religion which grounds religious belief in human cognitive structures: religious belief is ’natural’, in a way that even scientific thought is not. Does this new discipline support religious belief, undermine it, or is it, despite many claims, perhaps eventually neutral? This subject is of immense importance, particularly given the rise of the ’new atheism’. Philosophers and theologians from North America, UK and Australia, explore the alleged conflict between truth claims and examine the roots of religion in human nature. Is it less ’natural’ to be an atheist than to believe in God, or gods? On the other hand, if we can explain theism psychologically, have we explained it away. Can it still claim any truth? This book debates these and related issues.

New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion

Hans van Eyghen
New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : Hans van Eyghen
Publisher : Springer
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2018-07-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319902395

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New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion by Hans van Eyghen Pdf

It is widely thought that the cognitive science of religion (CSR) may have a bearing on the epistemic status of religious beliefs and on other topics in philosophy of religion. Epistemologists have used theories from CSR to argue both for and against the rationality of religious beliefs, or they have claimed that CSR is neutral vis-à-vis the epistemic status of religious belief. However, since CSR is a rapidly evolving discipline, a great deal of earlier research on the topic has become dated. Furthermore, most of the debate on the epistemic consequences of CSR has not taken into account insights from the philosophy of science, such as explanatory pluralism and explanatory levels. This volume overcomes these deficiencies. This volume brings together new philosophical reflection on CSR. It examines the influence of CSR theories on the epistemic status of religious beliefs; it discusses its impact on philosophy of religion; and it offers new insights for CSR. The book addresses the question of whether or not the plurality of theories in CSR makes epistemic conclusions about religious belief unwarranted. It also explores the impact of CSR on other topics in philosophy of religion like the cognitive consequences of sin and naturalism. Finally, the book investigates what the main theories in CSR aim to explain, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of CSR.

Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not

Robert N. McCauley
Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not Book PDF

Author : Robert N. McCauley
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2013-11
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780199341542

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Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not by Robert N. McCauley Pdf

A comparison of the cognitive foundations of religion and science and an argument that religion is cognitively natural and that science is cognitively unnatural.

Current Approaches in the Cognitive Science of Religion

Ilkka Pyysiainen,Veikko Anttonen
Current Approaches in the Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : Ilkka Pyysiainen,Veikko Anttonen
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2002-09-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 082645710X

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Current Approaches in the Cognitive Science of Religion by Ilkka Pyysiainen,Veikko Anttonen Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is a new field that has emerged within Religious Studies in the past two decades. In this volume, the world's leading experts present an up-to-date introduction to problems, theories and recent findings in this branch of inquiry. The issues discussed focus on the cognitive sources of recurrent phenomena that can be subsumed in the category of 'religion' in cultures the world over. For instance, the contributors posit questions as to why religious concepts emerge in the first place and what is the role that memory plays in the cultural transmission of beliefs and practices pertaining to religion. In explaining these and many other issues, the authors draw on the study of primate cognition, linguistics, anthropology as well as developmental, cognitive and evolutionary psychology.The cognitive science of religion represents a dramatic change (a "cognitive turn") in the inherited ways of understanding religious phenomena. It will significantly alter the current views of religion within the fields of Religious Studies and Cultural Anthropology. Instead of questions centering on the existence of gods, spirits or ghosts, or the cultural diversity of myths, beliefs and rituals, this field of study focuses on the role that the human mind and its evolved cognitive machinery play in the construction of supernatural repertoires.The book is of interest to scholars in religious studies and comparative religion as well as in anthropology, psychology and cognitive science.

Mind and Religion

Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley
Mind and Religion Book PDF

Author : Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 51,9 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.

The Oxford Handbook of the Cognitive Science of Religion

Justin L. Barrett
The Oxford Handbook of the Cognitive Science of Religion Book PDF

Author : Justin L. Barrett
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 457 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2022
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780190693350

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The Oxford Handbook of the Cognitive Science of Religion by Justin L. Barrett Pdf

"Over time, more psychologists have become contributors to cognitive science of religion (CSR), but when are they doing CSR and when are they doing psychology of religion? Does it matter? In this chapter, contemporary scientific reflections on notions of death and the afterlife are sketched to illustrate the subtle differences between CSR and psychology of religion. These kindred scientific approaches overlap considerably, but attention to their central differences will assist scholars in finding complementarity, thereby improving both schools of inquiry and their contributions to each other. After developing this thesis, this chapter introduces the organization and flow of the volume as a whole. Beginning with general theoretical and methodological foundations, the volume then considers specific applications of CSR to substantive topics such as beliefs in gods, sacred texts, sacred objects, and ritualized behaviors, before turning to how these domains of cultural expression are sometimes joined (or not) into religious systems. The volume ends with comparisons between CSR and two other neighboring approaches (evolutionary studies of religion and neuroscience of religion) and, finally, implications of CSR for philosophy of religion, religious education, and theology"--

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion

Brett E. Maiden
Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion Book PDF

Author : Brett E. Maiden
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2020-10-08
Category : Bibles
ISBN : 9781108487788

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Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion by Brett E. Maiden Pdf

Recent tools and findings from the cognitive sciences illuminate religious thought and behaviour in ancient Israel and the Bible. Primarily intended for scholars of the Bible and religion, it is also relevant to cognitive scientists, researchers, and graduate students interested in the intersection of cognition and culture.

Mental Culture

Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle
Mental Culture Book PDF

Author : Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317546085

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Mental Culture by Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle Pdf

Why is the set of human beliefs and behaviours that we call "religion" such a widespread feature of all known human societies, past and present, and why are there so many forms of religiosity found throughout history and culture? "Mental Culture" brings together an international range of scholars - from Anthropology, History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies - to answer these questions. Connecting classical theories and approaches with the newly established field of the Cognitive Science of Religion, the aim of "Mental Culture" is to provide scholars and students of religion with an overview of contemporary scientific approaches to religion while tracing their intellectual development to some of the great thinkers of the past.

Religion, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science

Harvey Whitehouse,James Laidlaw
Religion Anthropology and Cognitive Science Book PDF

Author : Harvey Whitehouse,James Laidlaw
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Cognition and culture
ISBN : UOM:39015074080725

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Religion, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science by Harvey Whitehouse,James Laidlaw Pdf

This book examines longstanding debates in the anthropology of religion concerning the connections between ritual and meaning, belief, politics, emotion, development, and gender. But it examines these 'old' topics from a radically new perspective: that of the cognitive science of religion. As such the volume identifies potential solutions to established problems but it also sets out a program for future research in the field. The volume includes a substantial introduction from Harvey Whitehouse and James Laidlaw who highlight the connections between key issues in the history of religious anthropology and the latest findings of scientific psychology. This volume, they argue, presents us with potential solutions to old problems but also with a series of new and exciting challenges. This book is part of the Ritual Studies Monograph Series, edited by Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew Strathern, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh. "The introduction and endpapers by the editors, which detail these positions, are excellent; the papers in between, which explore the relation of EP to the thought of Malinowski, Durkheim, and other seminal anthropological scholars of religion, are likewise first rate... Highly recommended." -- C.S. Peebles, Indiana University-Bloomington, CHOICE Magazine