Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
by Pascal Boyer
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/subjects/science/nr_science.asp
Unlike other books offering "scientific" explanations for religion, this one
actually details the common strands running through spiritual concepts and
feelings, rather than using science to simply explain away religion. Employing
the latest findings of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science, Boyer
shows why religious ideas make sense to humans and explains just which ideas
are acceptable.
Format: Hardcover, 300pp.
ISBN: 0465006957
Publisher: Basic Books
Pub. Date: May 2001
From Our Editors
Unlike other books offering "scientific" explanations for religion, this one
actually details the common strands running through spiritual concepts and
feelings, rather than using science to simply explain away religion. Drawing
upon the latest findings of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science,
Boyer shows why religious ideas make sense to humans and just which ideas are
acceptable.
>From the Publisher
"Many of us have endless questions about faith, spirituality, and the place of
religious thinking in the world. But one central question - perhaps the
central question - about religion has remained strangely inaccessible: Why do
we have it at all? Until recently, if you'd asked this of most
anthropologists, they'd have told you that the question was ill-formulated and
too vague to be of scientific interest." "In fact, the intellectual tools for
thinking about the problem simply didn't exist. Now, says Pascal Boyer, they
do, provided by theories and research in evolutionary biology and cognitive
psychology."--BOOK JACKET.
From the Critics
>From Washington Post Book World
...a penetrating scientific analysis of religion.
>From Library Journal
Utilizing cross-cultural studies and a multidisciplinary approach,
anthropologist Boyer (Luce Professor of Collective Memory and Individual
Memory, Washington Univ.) argues that the origin, development, and diversity
of religion are scientifically explainable within the naturalistic frameworks
of evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology. His point of departure is
the complex human brain and its mental activity, both being a result of
natural selection enhancing the adaptation, survival, and reproductive success
of our social ancestors through over four million years of hominid evolution.
Boyer focuses on the inference systems and intuitive expectations of evolved
human brain capacities to account for the biocultural origin of religious
concepts and supernatural agents (e.g., gods, ghosts, demons, spirits, and
witches). He is to be commended for his scholarly and critical examination of
religion. Some readers may find his arguments difficult to follow and to
accept, but this is nevertheless a significant contribution to anthropology.
Especially recommended for academic libraries. H. James Birx, Canisius Coll.,
Buffalo, NY Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
>From Kirkus
A roundabout consideration of why humans turn to otherworldly thoughts. Boyer
(Collective Memory and Individual Memory/Washington Univ.) is fluent in
several disciplines that touch on the cognitive sciences, including physical
anthropology and evolutionary psychology. All of these disciplines, along with
classical philosophy, come to bear on his account of why humans in every place
and at every time have found it necessary or desirable to think of gods, the
afterlife, and other extraordinary matters, building "complex supernatural
constructs out of very simple conceptual bricks" (such as the recognition that
all mortal beings die). While recognizing that religious beliefs vary widely
within and between cultures and individuals, the author suggests that we hold
them largely because we can; that is, all humans possess "the mind it takes to
have religion," a mind that uses processes such as "decoupling" and "inference
systems" to arrive at what Boyer considers to be eminently practical reasoning
about the meaning of life (reasoning that can sometimes involve inventing
cosmic explanations for the mysteries and problems the mind confronts).
Regrettably, the author is rarely straightforward in making such arguments,
preferring instead to linger over (and then demolish) straw-man arguments and
to show the flaws in other influential theories of religion (such as those of
William James). The noted biologist E.O. Wilson gives a more concise and
better argued account of the evolutionary basis of religion-if one that seems
calculated to offend believers, as Boyer's is not-in Consilience (1998). For
all that, Boyer's account has many merits, showing how the mind works by means
of analogy, trial anderror, and sheer speculation (the more counterintuitive
the better) in the service of helping us to become comfortable inside our own
skins and sleep well at night. Students of psychology and philosophy will find
much value in Boyer's treatise, but it will probably strike most general
readers as dry and daunting.
FROM THE BOOK
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1 What Is the Origin? 1
2 What Supernatural Concepts Are Like 51
3 The Kind of Mind It Takes 93
4 Why Gods and Spirits? 137
5 Why Do Gods and Spirits Matter? 169
6 Why Is Religion About Death? 203
7 Why Rituals? 229
8 Why Doctrines, Exclusion and Violence? 265
9 Why Belief? 297
Further readings 331
Notes 335
References 343
Index
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, CYC, and ELIZA
Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
(Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
We won't move into a better future until we debunk religiosity, the most
regressive force now operating in society.
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