How Religion Works

by Pyysiainen, Ilkka; Pyysiainen, Iikka

• ISBN13: 9789004132733
• ISBN10: 9004132732
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub

Summary

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."

Author Biography

Ilkka Pyysiainen, Ph.D. (1993), University of Helsinki, is Academy Research Fellow at the Academy of Finland

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Cognitive Approach to Religion	1	(8)
The Category of 'Religion'	1	(4)
The Cognitive Approach	5	(4)
CHAPTER TWO God and Transcendence	9	(16)
'God' as an Emic Concept	9	(3)
Superhuman Beings, Religion and Science	12	(2)
Intentional Agents	14	(4)
Counter-Intuitiveness of Gods	18	(4)
Summary	22	(3)
CHAPTER THREE Religion and Culture	25	(30)
Geertz and the Concept of 'Culture'	25	(8)
Geertz and Symbolism	33	(11)
Geertz on Religion as a Symbolic Cultural System	44	(8)
Summary	52	(3)
CHAPTER FOUR Religion and the Social	55	(22)
On the Sociological Background of Durkheim's Theory of Religion	55	(4)
Religion and Society	59	(4)
Religion as Symbolic of the Society - A Critique	63	(7)
Religion and Society Reconsidered	70	(4)
Summary	74	(3)
CHAPTER FIVE Religious Belief, Experience, and Ritual	77	(66)
Ritual and Emotion	78	(19)
Theories of ritual	80	(4)
Ritual form and emotions	84	(13)
What is Emotion?	97	(5)
On the Neurophysiology of Emotion	102	(7)
Religious Experience, "Mysticism" and Emotions	109	(30)
Religious experience and "mysticism"	109	(5)
Neurophysiology of religious experience	114	(10)
Neurophysiological processes and religion	124	(6)
Emotions, religious belief, and religious experience	130	(9)
Summary	139	(4)
CHAPTER SIX Religion, "Worldview," and Ethics	143	(54)
Religion as "Worldview"	143	(15)
An Outline of Ethics as a Field of Study	158	(15)
Theories of ethics	158	(4)
Naturalist criticism of philosophical ethics	162	(3)
Towards naturalist ethics	165	(8)
Religious Ethics	173	(20)
Christian and Buddhist ethics	173	(10)
Mind and society in interaction	183	(6)
Differences in the sociocultural backgrounds of Buddhism and Christianity	189	(4)
Summary	193	(4)
CHAPTER SEVEN Religion and Cognition: Towards a New Science of Religion	197	(40)
Domain Specificity	197	(2)
Cognitive Modules	199	(9)
Intuitive Theories and Cognitive Domains	208	(7)
Is Religion a Cognitive Domain7	215	(20)
Violating the boundaries between domains	215	(2)
Distinguishing between religion and other forms of counter-intuitiveness	217	(8)
Empirical evidence of counter-intuitiveness as a characteristic of religion	225	(10)
Summary	235	(2)
References	237	(30)
Index of Names	267	(3)
Index of Subjects	270