Magic, Miracles, and Religion: A Scientist's PerspectiveCan scientists study religion? Ilkka Pyysiäinen says that they can. While the study of religion cannot be reduced to other disciplines, it must not ignore what other disciplines have learned about human thought and behavior. In this collection of essays, Pyysiäinen shows how findings from cognitive science can offer new directions to debates in religion. After providing a historical and theoretical overview of the cognitive science of religion, Pyysiäinen demonstrates how knowledge of the mind's workings can help deconstruct such concepts as "god," "ideology," "culture," "magic," "miracles," and "religion." For scholars of religion or for scholars of the mind-brain, Magic, Miracles, and Religion provides a helpful overview to this emerging field. |
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abstract argue arguments Atran biological Boyer brain Buddha Buddhist Cambridge causal chapter claims cognitive processes cognitive science concept connectionism consciousness Cosmides counterintuitive agents counterintuitive representations critical culture Dan Sperber developed domain edited emotions empirical evolutionary psychology example exist explain function generis gion Helsinki hermeneutics Honko human mind idea ideology Ilkka important inferences interpretation intuitive knowledge intuitive ontologies jhāna kinds knowledge Lapin Kulta Lawson ligion logical magic and religion Mahāyāna McCauley means mechanisms metarepresentational metarepresentational context metarepresented miracles natural objects ontological oral traditions person perspective phenomena phenomenology philosophy physical possible problem properties prototype theory psychology Pyysiäinen 2001b question reasoning reflective beliefs religious beliefs rituals Rubin scholars science of religion sense social specific Sperber structure study of religion sui generis supernatural sympathetic magic Tathāgata terintuitive theology theory things thinking thought and behavior tion Tooby true Ultimate Reality understand University Press
Popular passages
Page 232 - human body" and "territory" in conceptualizing religion. In The Sacred and its Scholars: Comparative Methodologies for the Study of Primary Religious Data, 36-64.
References to this book
Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our ... Patrick McNamara No preview available - 2006 |
The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the ... Roger Beck No preview available - 2006 |