Conceiving God The Cognitive Origin And Evolution Of Religion

Download Conceiving God The Cognitive Origin And Evolution Of Religion full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Conceiving God The Cognitive Origin And Evolution Of Religion ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion

Author : David Lewis-Williams
Publisher : Thames & Hudson
ISBN 13 : 0500770433
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion written by David Lewis-Williams and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial exploration of the origin of religion in the neurology of the human brain. In this book the noted cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams confronts a question that troubles many people in the world today: Is there a supernatural realm that intervenes in the material world of daily life and leads to the evolution of religions? Professor Lewis-Williams first describes how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in a supernatural realm, beings, and interventions. Once people have these experiences, they formulate beliefs about them, and thus creeds are born. Forty thousand years ago, people were leaving traces in the archaeological record of activities that we can label religious, and Lewis-Williams discusses in detail the evidence preserved in the Volp Caves in France. He also shows that mental imagery produced by the functioning of the human brain can be detected in widely separated religious communities such as Hildegard of Bingen’s in medieval Europe or the San hunters of southern Africa.

Conceiving God

Author : David Lewis-Williams
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781322671130
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (711 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Conceiving God by : David Lewis-Williams

Download or read book Conceiving God written by David Lewis-Williams and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Conceiving God

Author : David Lewis-williams
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 050005164X
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Conceiving God by : David Lewis-williams

Download or read book Conceiving God written by David Lewis-williams and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A controversial exploration of the origin of religion in the neurology of the human brain. In this book the noted cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams confronts a question that troubles many people in the world today: Is there a supernatural realm that intervenes in the material world of daily life and leads to the evolution of religions? Professor Lewis-Williams first describes how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in a supernatural realm, beings, and interventions. Once people have these experiences, they formulate beliefs about them, and thus creeds are born. Forty thousand years ago, people were leaving traces in the archaeological record of activities that we can label religious, and Lewis-Williams discusses in detail the evidence preserved in the Volp Caves in France. He also shows that mental imagery produced by the functioning of the human brain can be detected in widely separated religious communities such as Hildegard of Bingen’s in medieval Europe or the San hunters of southern Africa.

Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science

Author : Fraser Watts
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0199688087
Total Pages : 273 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science by : Fraser Watts

Download or read book Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science written by Fraser Watts and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods

Author : E. Fuller Torrey
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231544863
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods by : E. Fuller Torrey

Download or read book Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods written by E. Fuller Torrey and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religions and mythologies from around the world teach that God or gods created humans. Atheist, humanist, and materialist critics, meanwhile, have attempted to turn theology on its head, claiming that religion is a human invention. In this book, E. Fuller Torrey draws on cutting-edge neuroscience research to propose a startling answer to the ultimate question. Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods locates the origin of gods within the human brain, arguing that religious belief is a by-product of evolution. Based on an idea originally proposed by Charles Darwin, Torrey marshals evidence that the emergence of gods was an incidental consequence of several evolutionary factors. Using data ranging from ancient skulls and artifacts to brain imaging, primatology, and child development studies, this book traces how new cognitive abilities gave rise to new behaviors. For instance, autobiographical memory, the ability to project ourselves backward and forward in time, gave Homo sapiens a competitive advantage. However, it also led to comprehension of mortality, spurring belief in an alternative to death. Torrey details the neurobiological sequence that explains why the gods appeared when they did, connecting archaeological findings including clothing, art, farming, and urbanization to cognitive developments. This book does not dismiss belief but rather presents religious belief as an inevitable outcome of brain evolution. Providing clear and accessible explanations of evolutionary neuroscience, Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods will shed new light on the mechanics of our deepest mysteries.

Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture

Author : Armin W. Geertz
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317544552
Total Pages : 429 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture by : Armin W. Geertz

Download or read book Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture written by Armin W. Geertz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attempts to understand the origins of humanity have raised fundamental questions about the complex relationship between cognition and culture. Central to the debates on origins is the role of religion, religious ritual and religious experience. What came first: individual religious (ecstatic) experiences, collective observances of transition situations, fear of death, ritual competence, magical coercion; mirror neurons or temporal lobe religiosity? Cognitive scientists are now providing us with important insights on phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes. Together with insights from the humanities and social sciences on the origins, development and maintenance of complex semiotic, social and cultural systems, a general picture of what is particularly human about humans could emerge. Reflections on the preconditions for symbolic and linguistic competence and practice are now within our grasp. Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture puts culture centre stage in the cognitive science of religion.

Why We Believe in God(s)

Author : J. Anderson Thomson
Publisher : Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA)
ISBN 13 : 0984493239
Total Pages : 89 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (844 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Why We Believe in God(s) by : J. Anderson Thomson

Download or read book Why We Believe in God(s) written by J. Anderson Thomson and published by Pitchstone Publishing (US&CA). This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking volume, J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., MD, with Clare Aukofer, offers a succinct yet comprehensive study of how and why the human mind generates religious belief. Dr. Thomson, a highly respected practicing psychiatrist with credentials in forensic psychiatry and evolutionary psychology, methodically investigates the components and causes of religious belief in the same way any scientist would investigate the movement of astronomical bodies or the evolution of life over time—that is, as a purely natural phenomenon. Providing compelling evidence from psychology, the cognitive neurosciences, and related fields, he, with Ms. Aukofer, presents an easily accessible and exceptionally convincing case that god(s) were created by man—not vice versa. With this slim volume, Dr. Thomson establishes himself as a must-read thinker and leading voice on the primacy of reason and science over superstition and religion.

Philosophy of Religion

Author : Tim Bayne
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198754965
Total Pages : 161 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Philosophy of Religion by : Tim Bayne

Download or read book Philosophy of Religion written by Tim Bayne and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy of religion contains some of our most burning questions about the role of religion in the world, and the relationship between believers and God. Tim Bayne considers the core debates surrounding the concept of God; the relationship between faith and reason; and the problem of evil, before looking at reincarnation and the afterlife.

The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic

Author : Gregory J. Wightman
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1442242906
Total Pages : 307 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic by : Gregory J. Wightman

Download or read book The Origins of Religion in the Paleolithic written by Gregory J. Wightman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did religion emerge—and why? What are the links between behavior, environment, and religiosity? Diving millions of years into the past, to a time when human ancestors began grappling with issues of safety, worth, identity, loss, power, and meaning in complex and difficult environments, GregoryJ. Wightman explores the significance of goal-directed action and the rise of material culture for the advent of religiosity and ritual. The book opens by tackling questions of cognitive evolution and group psychology, and how these ideas can integrate with archaeological evidence such as stone tools, shell beads, and graves. In turn, it focuses on how human ancestors engaged with their environments, how those engagements became routine, and how, eventually, certain routines took on a recognizably ritualistic flavor. Wightman also critically examines the very real constraints on drawing inferences about prehistoric belief systems solely from limited material residues. Nevertheless, Wightman argues that symbolic objects are not merely illustrative of religion, but also constitutive of it; in the continual dance between brain and behavior, between internal and external environments, lie the seeds of ritual and religion. Weaving together insights from archaeology; anthropology; cognitive and cultural neuroscience; history and philosophy of religions; and evolutionary, social, and developmental psychology, Wightman provides an intricate, evidence-based understanding of religion’s earliest origins.

Honest To Goodness

Author : Martin Prozesky
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1532665385
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (326 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Honest To Goodness by : Martin Prozesky

Download or read book Honest To Goodness written by Martin Prozesky and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honest to Goodness proposes a new Christian presence that is free of dogmatism, exclusivism, and biblicism. It charts a way back to the spiritual and ethical revolution begun by Jesus of Nazareth, one that can make a vital difference to needless evils such as bigotry, environmental destruction, poverty, and violence. The book reveals the author's experience of living under, against, and after apartheid, insisting that a faith that does not confront this world's evils is no faith at all, but a dangerous betrayal of all that is good, beautiful, and true. Honest to Goodness unflinchingly identifies the grave moral shortcomings that are embedded in traditional Christian beliefs and practices, and proposes ways of transforming them into harmony with the divine goodness that the author discerns everywhere. Embracing a world of religious diversity, science, and creative philosophy, the book describes a new way of experiencing and expressing the divine. It defends faith by moving beyond both theism and atheism.

Science and the World's Religions

Author : Patrick McNamara Ph.D.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 1039 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (161 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Science and the World's Religions by : Patrick McNamara Ph.D.

Download or read book Science and the World's Religions written by Patrick McNamara Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This trio of volumes contains essays that explore vital existential, moral, or metaphysical issues surrounding the relationship between the sciences and the world's religions. In Science and the World's Religions, experts with scientific and religious backgrounds explore vital existential or practical issues, drawing on whatever sciences are relevant and engaging at least two religious traditions. The multidisciplinary essays exhibit rigorous intellectual, scholarly thinking but are written to clearly communicate to educated adult lay readers. The first volume addresses questions about the origins and purpose of the cosmos and the human project. The second volume investigates the roles of religion and spirituality in human existence, considering issues ranging from the brain and religious experience to the human life cycle. The third volume tackles controversies in which both religion and science are stakeholders, showing how both can deepen understanding and enrich human experience. Together, these three books present readers with powerful tools that enable them to think through the challenge of integrating science with their religious beliefs and spiritual practices.

The Story of Human Spiritual Evolution

Author : Richard Ferguson
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
ISBN 13 : 1479735086
Total Pages : 207 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (797 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Story of Human Spiritual Evolution by : Richard Ferguson

Download or read book The Story of Human Spiritual Evolution written by Richard Ferguson and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2012-10 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is one of a kind. It traces the history of human awareness of God and belief back to its earliest roots, long before the Bible, the Koran, the Upanishads and other writings. It shows how the foundation for belief in God was contained within the instant of creation itself. Scientists call this the big bang. It shows that as the universe developed there came a point in human development where we had the capability to begin to be aware of an afterlife. These ideas were primitive by our standards today but they served to create a solid foundation for increasing complex and more thorough understandings of who God is and our relationship with Him. This book covers the well known axial age where there was a watershed or flood of prophets and holy men who advanced understandings of both philosophy and theology and science in the hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus Christ. In a real sense they prepared the way for God's son and His gospel. It is these men who changed the course of human understanding of God with new revolutionary ideas that advanced the self revelation of God to humankind. The last part of the book looks at religion today and how we got here and ends with God's view of humanity as we constantly strive toward God on our individual spiritual journeys.

From Big Bang to Big Mystery

Author : Brendan M. Purcell
Publisher : New City Press
ISBN 13 : 1565484339
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (654 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis From Big Bang to Big Mystery by : Brendan M. Purcell

Download or read book From Big Bang to Big Mystery written by Brendan M. Purcell and published by New City Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone knows about the 'mystery' of the Big Bang - what started it? This book is about the other 'creation mystery' - where did human beings, in particular, come from? It traces the material part of our origins from the Big Bang through evolution, including the almost 7 million year hominid sequence up to the first humans in Africa over 150,000 years ago. That data doesn't seem to explain what paleontologists and archaeologists call 'the Big Bang of Human Consciousness.' In his fascinating, accessible and thorough study, renowned priest and academic Brendan Purcell shows the complementarity that scientists, theologians, and philosophers bring to a deeper understanding of the mystery of human existence and human consciousness.

Introducing Religion

Author : Robert S. Ellwood
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000709019
Total Pages : 411 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Introducing Religion by : Robert S. Ellwood

Download or read book Introducing Religion written by Robert S. Ellwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing Religion explores different ways of looking at religion in the twenty-first century. Providing a broad overview to the discipline of religious studies, this textbook introduces students to engaging and contemporary topics such as: sociology of religion psychology of religion history of religion religion and art religious ethics popular religion religion and violence Thoroughly updated throughout, this fifth edition includes images, further reading, a detailed glossary, case studies, and key terms for revision. This is the essential textbook for students approaching this subject area for the first time.

Conversations on Canaanite and Biblical Themes

Author : Rebecca S. Watson
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110606291
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Conversations on Canaanite and Biblical Themes by : Rebecca S. Watson

Download or read book Conversations on Canaanite and Biblical Themes written by Rebecca S. Watson and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-08-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguments over the relationship between Canaanite and Israelite religion often derive from fundamental differences in presupposition, methodology and definition, yet debate typically focuses in on details and encourages polarization between opposing views, inhibiting progress. This volume seeks to initiate a cultural change in scholarly practice by setting up dialogues between pairs of experts in the field who hold contrasting views. Each pair discusses a clearly defined issue through the lens of a particular biblical passage, responding to each other’s arguments and offering their reflections on the process. Topics range from the apparent application of ‘chaos’ and ‘divine warrior’ symbolism to Yahweh in Habakkuk 3, the evidence for ‘monotheism’ in pre-Exilic Judah in 2 Kings 22–23, and the possible presence of ‘chaos’ or creatio ex nihilo in Genesis 1 and Psalm 74. This approach encourages the recognition of points of agreement as well as differences and exposes some of the underlying issues that inhibit consensus. In doing so, it consolidates much that has been achieved in the past, offers fresh ideas and perspective and, through intense debate, subjects new ideas to thorough critique and suggests avenues for further research.

The Burning Saints

Author : Dimitris Xygalatas
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317543750
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Burning Saints by : Dimitris Xygalatas

Download or read book The Burning Saints written by Dimitris Xygalatas and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Anastenaria are Orthodox Christians in Northern Greece who observe a unique annual ritual cycle focused on two festivals, dedicated to Saint Constantine and Saint Helen. The festivals involve processions, music, dancing, animal sacrifices, and culminate in an electrifying fire-walking ritual. Carrying the sacred icons of the saints, participants dance over hot coals as the saint moves them. 'The Burning Saints' presents an analysis of these rituals and the psychology behind them. Based on long-term fieldwork, 'The Burning Saints' traces the historical development and sociocultural context of the Greek fire-walking rituals. As a cognitive ethnography, the book aims to identify the social, psychological and neurobiological factors which may be involved and to explore the role of emotional and physiological arousal in the performance of such ritual. A study of participation, experience and meaning, 'The Burning Saints' presents a highly original analysis of how mental processes can shape social and religious behaviour.

Christ Returns from the Jungle

Author : Marc G. Blainey
Publisher : State University of New York Press
ISBN 13 : 1438483155
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Christ Returns from the Jungle by : Marc G. Blainey

Download or read book Christ Returns from the Jungle written by Marc G. Blainey and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After more than 450 years of European intrusions into South America's rainforest, small groups of people across Europe now gather discreetly to participate in Amazonian ceremonies their local governments consider a criminal act. As devotees of a new Brazil-based religion called Santo Daime, they claim that they contact God by way of ayahuasca, a potent psychoactive beverage first developed by native communities in pre-Columbian Amazonia. This bitter, brown liquid is a synergy of plants containing DMT, a mind-altering chemical classified as an illicit "hallucinogen" in most countries. By contrast, Santo Daime members (daimistas) revere ayahuasca as a sacrament, combining it with rituals and theologies borrowed from Christian mysticism, indigenous shamanism, Afro-Brazilian spiritualism, and Western esotericism. The Santo Daime religion was founded in 1930 by an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper named Raimundo Irineu Serra, now known as Mestre (Master) Irineu. Presenting results from more than a year of fieldwork with Santo Daime groups in Europe, Marc G. Blainey contributes new understandings of contemporary Westerners' search for existential well-being on an increasingly interconnected planet. As a thorough exploration of daimistas' beliefs about the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca, this book takes readers on an ethnographic journey into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.