Cognitive Psychology of Religion PDF Download
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Author: Kevin J. Eames
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478633069
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175
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Book Description
Is religion all in our heads? Whether you believe that to be true or whether you believe that religion has a corresponding external reality (i.e., God), religion at least begins with our heads, namely the cognitive architecture that predisposes human beings to belief in the sacred supernatural. Cognitive Psychology of Religion explores how research in neuroscience, perception, cognition, child development, social cognition, and cognitive anthropology provides insight into the development of the cognitive faculties of belief that facilitate the transmission of religion. Eames has organized the text into seven chapters that follow a clear and straightforward progression from the different theories of the origin of religion into an exploration on how our minds perceive the environment, form truths, spread beliefs, and take part in various rituals and experiences. Cognitive Psychology of Religion is a concise introduction to the cognitive science of religion and serves as an excellent primary or supplemental text for traditional psychology of religion courses.
Author: Kevin J. Eames
Publisher: Waveland Press
ISBN: 1478633069
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 175
Get Book Here
Book Description
Is religion all in our heads? Whether you believe that to be true or whether you believe that religion has a corresponding external reality (i.e., God), religion at least begins with our heads, namely the cognitive architecture that predisposes human beings to belief in the sacred supernatural. Cognitive Psychology of Religion explores how research in neuroscience, perception, cognition, child development, social cognition, and cognitive anthropology provides insight into the development of the cognitive faculties of belief that facilitate the transmission of religion. Eames has organized the text into seven chapters that follow a clear and straightforward progression from the different theories of the origin of religion into an exploration on how our minds perceive the environment, form truths, spread beliefs, and take part in various rituals and experiences. Cognitive Psychology of Religion is a concise introduction to the cognitive science of religion and serves as an excellent primary or supplemental text for traditional psychology of religion courses.
Author: Claire White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351010956
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 341
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Book Description
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.
Author: Asst Prof James A. Van Slyke
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409481654
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192
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Book Description
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.
Author: Justin L. Barrett
Publisher: Templeton Press
ISBN: 9781599473819
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology is the eighth title published in the Templeton Science and Religion Series, in which scientists from a wide range of fields distill their experience and knowledge into brief tours of their respective specialties. In this volume, well-known cognitive scientist Justin L. Barrett offers an accessible overview of this interdisciplinary field, reviews key findings in this area, and discusses the implications of these findings for religious thought and practice. Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary study of minds and mental activity, and as such, it addresses a fundamental feature of what it is to be human. Further, as religious traditions concern ideas and beliefs about the nature of humans, the nature of the world, and the nature of the divine, cognitive science can contribute directly and indirectly to these theological concerns. Barrett shows how direct contributions come from the growing area called cognitive science of religion (CSR), which investigates how human cognitive systems inform and constrain religious thought, experience, and expression. CSR attempts to answer questions such as: Why do humans tend to be religious? And why are specific ideas (e.g., the possibility of an afterlife) so cross-culturally recurrent? Barrett also covers the indirect implications that cognitive science has for theology, such as human similarities and differences with the animal world, freedom and determinism, and the relationship between minds and bodies. Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology critically reviews the research on these fascinating questions and discusses the many implications that arise from them. In addition, this short volume also offers suggestions for future research, making it ideal not only for those looking for an overview of the field thus far but also for those seeking a glimpse of where the field might be going in the future.
Author: Harvey Whitehouse
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759106192
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
This collection examines new psychological evidence for the modal theory and attempts to synthesize this theory with other theories of cognition and religion.
Author: D. Jason Slone
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350033707
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 311
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Book Description
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.
Author: Pascal Boyer
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 046500461X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
Many of our questions about religion, says the internationally renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, were once mysteries, but they no longer are: we are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" and "Why is religion the way it is?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Boyer shows how one of the most fascinating aspects of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. And Man Creates God tells readers, for the first time, what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and how it originates. It is a beautifully written, very accessible book by an anthropologist who is highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic. As a scientific explanation for religious feeling, it is sure to arouse controversy.
Author: James R. Liddle
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199397740
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 399
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Book Description
Résumé : This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs.
Author: Fraser Watts
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199688087
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 273
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Book Description
This evolutionary cognitive science of religion is concerned specifically with exploring the relationship between the evolution of the human mind, the evolution of culture in general, and the origins and subsequent development of religion. This volume brings together specialists from different disciplines to reflect on these questions.
Author: Todd Tremlin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019988546X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 243
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Book Description
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.
