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The Naturalness Of Religious Ideas
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Book Synopsis The Naturalness of Religious Ideas by : Pascal Boyer
Download or read book The Naturalness of Religious Ideas written by Pascal Boyer and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 679 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do people have religious ideas? And why thosereligious ideas? The main theme of Pascal Boyer's work is that important aspects of religious representations are constrained by universal properties of the human mind-brain. Experimental results from developmental psychology, he says, can explain why certain religious representations are more likely to be acquired, stored, and transmitted by human minds. Considering these universal constraints, Boyer proposes an exciting new answer to the question of why similar religious representations are found in so many different cultures. His work will be widely discussed by cultural anthropologists, psychologists, and students of religion, history, and philosophy.
Book Synopsis The Naturalness of Belief by : Paul Copan
Download or read book The Naturalness of Belief written by Paul Copan and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its name, “naturalism” as a world-view turns out to be rather unnatural in its strict and more consistent form of materialism and determinism. This is why a number of naturalists opt for a broadened version that includes objective moral values, intrinsic human dignity, consciousness, beauty, personal agency, and the like. But in doing so, broad naturalism begins to look more like theism. As many strict naturalists recognize, broad naturalism must borrow from the metaphysical resources of a theistic world-view, in which such features are very natural, common sensical, and quite “at home” in a theistic framework. The Naturalness of Belief begins with a naturalistic philosopher’s own perspective of naturalism and naturalness. The remaining chapters take a multifaceted approach in showing theism’s naturalness and greater explanatory power. They examine not only rational reasons for theism’s ability to account for consciousness, intentionality, beauty, human dignity, free will, rationality, and knowledge; they also look at common sensical, existential, psychological, and cultural reasons—in addition to the insights of the cognitive science of religion.
Book Synopsis Pluralism: The Future of Religion by : Kenneth Rose
Download or read book Pluralism: The Future of Religion written by Kenneth Rose and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theology of religions has defaulted in the last two decades to an epicyclic inclusivism which seeks to undermine pluralism with claims that it is covertly triumphalistic and that it mirrors the logic of exclusivism. With the exception of pioneers in the field such as John Hick and Paul Knitter, most major figures in this theological field have retreated from pluralism and promote versions of particularism and inclusivism. Pluralism: The Future of Religion argues for an apophatic pluralism that is motivated by the insight that it is impossible to secure universal assent for changeable bodies of religious teachings. This insight implies the non-finality and consequent 'departicularization' of all religious teachings and their inclusivistic defenses. These conclusions point us inevitably toward pluralism and lead us out of the inclusivistic impasse of contemporary theology in religions.
Book Synopsis Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture by : Slawomir Sztajer
Download or read book Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture written by Slawomir Sztajer and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2019-05 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cultural diversity and cultural change make it difficult to define and theorize cultural phenomena. This is especially apparent in the case of such cultural areas as religion and popular culture. This book presents ways to understand and explain the diversity and variability of religious and popular culture phenomena. The first part of this book focuses on the cognitive foundations and cultural dimensions of religious phenomena. The cognitive science of religion provides a new theoretical framework for explaining religious diversity and variability. The second part is dedicated to the study of selected phenomena of popular culture from the perspective distinctive to cultural anthropology. It attempts to bring into light this features of popular culture phenomena that have direct impact on cultural subjects.
Book Synopsis What Is Religion? by : Thomas A. Idinopulos
Download or read book What Is Religion? written by Thomas A. Idinopulos and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1998 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of Religion: BRIAN C. WILSON.
Book Synopsis A Natural History of Natural Theology by : Helen De Cruz
Download or read book A Natural History of Natural Theology written by Helen De Cruz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2024-06-11 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the cognitive foundations of intuitions about the existence and attributes of God. Questions about the existence and attributes of God form the subject matter of natural theology, which seeks to gain knowledge of the divine by relying on reason and experience of the world. Arguments in natural theology rely largely on intuitions and inferences that seem natural to us, occurring spontaneously—at the sight of a beautiful landscape, perhaps, or in wonderment at the complexity of the cosmos—even to a nonphilosopher. In this book, Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt examine the cognitive origins of arguments in natural theology. They find that although natural theological arguments can be very sophisticated, they are rooted in everyday intuitions about purpose, causation, agency, and morality. Using evidence and theories from disciplines including the cognitive science of religion, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary aesthetics, and the cognitive science of testimony, they show that these intuitions emerge early in development and are a stable part of human cognition. De Cruz and De Smedt analyze the cognitive underpinnings of five well-known arguments for the existence of God: the argument from design, the cosmological argument, the moral argument, the argument from beauty, and the argument from miracles. Finally, they consider whether the cognitive origins of these natural theological arguments should affect their rationality.
Book Synopsis Is Religion Natural? by : Dirk Evers
Download or read book Is Religion Natural? written by Dirk Evers and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2012-10-06 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exploration of the relationship between evolutionary psychology, naturalism, and theological reflections, published by ESSSAT, the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology.
Book Synopsis Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by : John S. Wilkins
Download or read book Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon written by John S. Wilkins and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade a strident public debate has arisen about the nature and origin of religions. Controversies include how exactly religion evolved, whether by individual or group selection, if it is adaptive, and if not, whether and how it is a side effect of evolution. This volume focuses on the issue of naturalizing religion: on the ways in which cognitive science and social sciences have treated religion as a natural phenomenon. It questions whether religious behaviour, institutions, and experiences can be explained in natural terms. The editor brings together some of the best published work on the definition of 'religion', intelligent design and the evolution of religion.
Book Synopsis Beyond Phenomenology by : Gavin Flood
Download or read book Beyond Phenomenology written by Gavin Flood and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1999-08-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion is always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religions are privileged, epistemic objects, argues for the importance of metatheory, and presents an argument for the dialogical nature of inquiry. The study of religion should begin with language and culture, and this shift in emphasis to the philosophy of the sign in hermeneutics and away from the philosophy of consciousness in phenomenology has far-reaching implications. It means a new ethic of practice which is sensitive to the power relationship in any epistemology; it opens the door to feminist and postcolonial critique, and it provides a methodology which allows for the interface between religious studies, theology, and the social sciences.
Book Synopsis Liberation Philosophy: From the Buddha to Omar Khayyam by : Mostafa Vaziri
Download or read book Liberation Philosophy: From the Buddha to Omar Khayyam written by Mostafa Vaziri and published by Vernon Press. This book was released on 2019-09-30 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The critical narrative of this interdisciplinary book offers a first-time look at the interrelationship between biology, mythology and philosophy in human development. Its daring premise follows the trajectory of human thought, starting with the biological roots of fear and the original need for religion, truth-seeking, and myth-making. The narrative then innovatively links a number of maverick philosophical teachings over the centuries, from pre-Buddhist times to the Buddha, from Epicurus and Pyrrho to Lucretius, and eventually to the seminal poetry of Omar Khayyam. These emergent philosophies exemplified liberation from the grasp of mythical and religious thinking and instead espoused an empirical and joyful mind. The narrative concludes with a look at the emancipating philosophical movement that resulted in the European Enlightenment, and it suggests that the philosophical teachings explored in the book may offer the potential for a second, broader Enlightenment.
Book Synopsis Religious Cognition in China by : Ryan G. Hornbeck
Download or read book Religious Cognition in China written by Ryan G. Hornbeck and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are human tendencies toward religious and spiritual thoughts, feelings, and actions outcomes of “natural” cognition? This volume revisits the “naturalness theory of religious cognition” through discussion of new qualitative and quantitative studies examining the psychological foundations of religious and spiritual expression in historical and contemporary China. Naturalness theory has been challenged on the grounds that little of its supporting developmental and experimental research has drawn on participants from predominantly secular cultural environments. Given China’s official secularity, its large proportion of atheists, and its alleged long history of dominant, nonreligious philosophies, can any broad claim for religion’s psychological “naturalness” be plausible? Addressing this empirical gap, the studies discussed in this volume support core naturalness theory predictions for human reasoning about supernatural agency, intelligent design, the efficacy of rituals, and vitalistic causality. And yet each study elucidates, expands upon, or even challenges outright the logical assumptions of the naturalness theory. Written for a non-specialist audience, this volume introduces the naturalness theory and frames the significance of these new findings for students and scholars of cultural psychology, the psychology of religion, the anthropology of religion, and Chinese Studies.
Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion by : James R. Liddle
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion written by James R. Liddle and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Book Synopsis Pragmatism and the Philosophy of Religion by : Michael R. Slater
Download or read book Pragmatism and the Philosophy of Religion written by Michael R. Slater and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-08-14 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael R. Slater argues for the contemporary relevance of pragmatist views in the philosophy of religion.
Book Synopsis Religion, Theory, Critique by : Richard King
Download or read book Religion, Theory, Critique written by Richard King and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion, Theory, Critique is an essential tool for learning about theory and method in the study of religion. Leading experts engage with contemporary and classical theories as well as non-Western cultural contexts. Unlike other collections, this anthology emphasizes the dynamic relationship between "religion" as an object of study and different methodological approaches and openly addresses the question of the manifold ways in which "religion," "secular," and "culture" are imagined within different disciplinary horizons. This volume is the first textbook which seeks to engage discussion of classical approaches with contemporary cultural and critical theories. Contributors write on the influence of the natural sciences in the study of religion; the role of European Christianity in modeling theories of religion; religious experience and the interface with cognitive science; the structure and function of religious language; the social-scientific study of religion; ritual in religion; the phenomenology of religion; critical theory and religion; embodiment and religion; the impact of colonialism and modernity; theorizing religion in terms of race and ethnicity; links among religion, nationalism, and globalization; the interplay of gender, sex, and religion; and religion and the environment. Each chapter introduces the topic, identifies key theorists and issues, and respects the pluralistic nature of the scholarship in the field. Altogether, this collection scrutinizes the explicit and implicit assumptions theorists make about religion as an object of analysis.
Download or read book About Religion written by Mark C. Taylor and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-07 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Religion," Mark C. Taylor maintains, "is most interesting where it is least obvious." From global financial networks to the casinos of Las Vegas, from images flickering on computer terminals to steel sculpture, material culture bears unexpected traces of the divine. In a world where the economies of faith are obscure, yet pervasive, Taylor shows that approaching religion directly is less instructive than thinking about it. Traveling from high culture to pop culture and back again, About Religion approaches cyberspace and Las Vegas through Hegel and Kant and reads Melville's The Confidence-Man through the film Wall Street. As astonishing juxtapositions and associations proliferate, formerly uncharted territories of virtual culture disclose theological vestiges, showing that faith in contemporary culture is as unavoidable as it is elusive. The most accessible presentation of Taylor's revolutionary ideas to date, About Religion gives us a dazzling and disturbing vision of life at the end of the old and beginning of the new millennium.
Book Synopsis Natural Reflections by : Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Download or read book Natural Reflections written by Barbara Herrnstein Smith and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-01-19 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important and original book, eminent scholar Barbara Herenstein Smith describes, assesses, and reflects upon a set of contemporary intellectual projects involving science, religion, and human cognition. One, which Smith calls "the New Naturalism", is the effort to explain religion on the basis of cognitive science. Another, which she calls "the New Natural Theology", is the attempt to reconcile natural-scientific accounts of the world with traditional religious belief. These two projects, she suggests, are in many ways mirror images -- or "natural reflections"--Of each other. Examing these and related efforts from the perspective of a constructivist-pragmatist epistemology, Smith argues that crucial aspects of belief - religious and other - that remain elusive or invisible under dominant rationalist and computational models are illuminated by views of human cognition that stress its dynamic, embodied, and interactive features. She also demonstrates how constructivist understandings of the formation and stabilization of knowledge - scientific and other - alert us to simularities in the springs of science and religion that are elsewhere seen largely in terms of difference and contrast. In Natural Reflections, Smith develops a sophisticated approach to issues often framed only polemically. Recognizing science and religion as complex, distinct domains of human practice, she also insists on their significant historical connections and cognitive continuities and offers important new modes of engagement with each of them--Jacket.
Book Synopsis Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not by : Robert N. McCauley
Download or read book Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not written by Robert N. McCauley and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparison of the cognitive foundations of religion and science and an argument that religion is cognitively natural and that science is cognitively unnatural.
