Introduction Many church members would attest to the social and perhaps even emotional benefits of participation and belief. Could one of these benefits include prevention of a major depressive disorder (MDD)? This was the question asked by S. Kasen, P.…
Politics and Body If you watch the news or read the opinion pages, you could be forgiven for thinking that liberals and conservatives are members of completely different species. But why is it that these different groups have such a…
From Shamans to Sovereigns Most accounts of the evolutionary origins of religion refer to the shamanistic complex of behaviors as the first set of behaviors that were recognizably – religious’. According to some scholars, the shamans of the upper Paleolithic (and…
Introduction Do liberals and conservatives really see the world differently? Maybe it’s more like they feel it differently. Recent research (e.g., Tomkins 1995) has suggested that conservatives and liberals experience different sorts of emotional responses. Specifically, some emotions, like joy…
Pleasure and Pain as Evolution’s Compass According to Darwinian theory, the point of life is simple: produce more life. But this vast agenda doesn’t always seem to motivate our countless humdrum, daily decisions. Instead, James A. Morris (Royal Lancaster Infirmary,…
Introduction It is examination time in many schools, colleges, and universities and students around the world are seriously stressed out. In the famous university town of Cambridge, England, for example one can almost feel the anxiety in the air as…
Introduction It’s a question many religious parents dread: “When Spot dies, will he go to heaven?” Countless children – and adults – have wondered whether their pets possess spirits, and the debate isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. Still,…
Introduction The word “religion” usually brings to mind complicated belief systems, rituals, and symbolic engagements with a higher reality – all of which seem well beyond the capabilities of animals less intellectually advanced than humans. However, “religion” may not be…
Introduction: A Chain of Religious Virtues Religiosity is correlated with many different psychological states and behaviors, such as empathy and generosity, or exclusivity and violence. However, the causal connections between belief, experience, and behavior are presently unclear. Psychologists Neal Krause…
Nothing Is Certain but Death and Taxes One of Benjamin Franklin’s most memorable – and most true – lines is “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Besides everybody griping during the run…
Culture, Evolution, and the Birth of Belief If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the past half-century or so of evolutionary science, it’s that natural selection often works in unexpected ways. The hypothesis that culture itself may develop according to…
Religion as Social Cognition Are religious beliefs fundamentally different, or are they simply the result of cognitive systems built for interactions with other human beings projected onto a supposed supernatural agent? A recent report by Dimitrios Kapogiannis Aron K. Barbey…
You know your libertarian friend? The one who votes Republican but scoffs at “family values,” who posts Ron Paul quotes on Facebook and thinks taxes are a form of theft? Well, thanks to some new research, we now know more…
Introduction – Do Genes Matter? Most people like to think they’ve carefully thought out their positions. They’ll say that they’ve fairly assessed both sides of an issue and have come to their particular position through thoughtful analysis. Well, what if…
Introduction “You’re not religious because you never go to church!” accuses one friend. “Well, you only go to church to socialize with your friends!” comes the retort. Is the person who goes to church in order to socialize more religious…
In previous posts we introduced CMAC’s consulting arm, NexusSIM and some of the work it does. This post describes another area of NexusSIM’s work. NexusSIM offers services in computer simulation, data analysis, and machine learning, with an aim of assisting researchers…
In a previous post, we introduced NexusSIM, the consulting arm of CMAC. But what exactly is NexusSIM and what does it do? Broadly speaking, NexusSIM exists to offer some of CMAC’s unique capabilities to research projects with a prosocial impact.…
Just Horizons Alliance (JHA), which is now CMAC’s umbrella organization, contains many parts. While CMAC anchors the research side of JHA, another branch, Wildhouse Publishing, is currently the main promoter of “expansive spirituality” within JHA (while Wildheart Evolution, which will…
Through the Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion (IBCSR) and the journal Religion, Brain, & Behavior, CMAC has been a key player in the subfield known as cognitive science of religion (CSR). This subfield is sometimes also called the…
In a recent post, we shared some basic background to the scientific study of religion, which has been one major focus of CMAC’s work. If you want more introductory information on this area of research, check out what our collaborator…