In gods we trust : the evolutionary landscape of religion
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
In gods we trust : the evolutionary landscape of religion
（Evolution and cognition）
Oxford University Press, 2002
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [301]-336) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This is an attempt to explain the origins of religion using what we know about the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, the author argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention, cultural selection, and historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential and moral elements in the human condition - elements that have arisen through evolution.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: An Evolutionary Riddle
- Part 1: Evolutionary Sources
- 2. The Mindless Agent: Evolutionary Adaptations and By-Products
- 3. God's Creation: Evolutionary Origins of the Supernatural
- Part 2: Absurd Commitments
- 4. Counterintuitive Worlds: The Most Mundane Nature of Religious Belief
- 5. The Sense of Sacrifice: Culture, Communication, and Commitment
- Part 3: Ritual Passions
- 6. Ritual and Relevation: The Emotional Mind
- 7. Waves of Passion: The Neuropsychology of Vision
- Part 4: Mindblind Theories
- 8. Culture without Mind: Sociobiology and Group Selection
- 9. The Trouble with Memes: Inference versus Imitation in Cultural Creation
- 10. Conclusion: Why Religion Seems Here to Stay
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