CMAC research projects produce a host of impactful results. Some of them are presented on this page.
Ann Taves, Wesley J. Wildman, F. LeRon Shults, and Raymond F. Paloutzian Method & Theory in the Study of Religion Abstract: The Values in Scholarship on Religion (VISOR) project collected data on the preferred methods and values of scholars in the academic study…
Over the past year, the Social Consequences of Religion (SCORE) team has been collecting biographic data in order to conduct a systematic analysis of published works on the subject of religion and cooperation. The project will will conduct a state-of-the-art…
CMAC has been developing a novel program to help those suffering from Chronic Nightmare Disorder. Led by Dr. Patrick McNamara, our Rescript team uses Oculus Rift virtual reality technology to manipulate upsetting or nightmare-inducing imagery. Individuals use the Oculus Rift…
Trigger warning: suicide, suicidal ideation, drug overdose, addiction. Please proceed with caution. If you or someone you know is in crisis, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Steve Rummler was prescribed opioids to alleviate severe pain…
The first season of our podcast DigEthix, hosted by CMAC Doctoral Fellow Seth Villegas, has wrapped. The podcast breaks down issues of ethics and technology from both a technical and sociopolitical perspective. Our goal is to help the next generation…
In 2017, CMAC Researchers Jonathan Morgan, Connor Wood, and Catherine Caldwell-Harris published their paper “Reflective Thought, Religious Belief, and the Social Foundations Hypothesis” as a chapter in the book The New Reflectionism edited by Gordon Pennycook. In 2021, AI bots…
Patrick McNamara, Wesley J Wildman, George Hodulik, David Rohr SLEEP Advances Study Objectives: To test and extend Levin & Nielsen’s (2007) Affective Network Dysfunction (AND) model with nightmare disorder (ND) image characteristics, and then to implement the extension as a computational simulation, the…
CMAC is excited to introduce DIGETHIX – a public education and communication project that provides publicly available discussions on issues involving technology and ethics. The goal of DIGETHIX is to promote high-level, practical ethical analysis through conversations with scholars and industry experts,…
In the summer of 2020, CMAC brought on our first full-time demographer, Rachel Bacon. Rachel is working on the Modeling Religious Change project, adapting traditional demography methods to cooperate with cutting edge methods in computational simulation. Following the release of…
Ryan Cragun, Kevin McCaffree, Ivan Puga-Gonzalez, Wesley Wildman, F. LeRon Shults Secularism and Nonreligion Abstract: Statistical models attempting to predict who will disaffiliate from religions have typically accounted for less than 15% of the variation in religious affiliations, suggesting that…
Across the globe and throughout history, religiosity has been the norm. But occasionally, you find times or places where supernatural worldviews fade among a large portion of the population. Right now, for example, most of Northern Europe, Scandinavia, and many…
Wesley J. Wildman, F. LeRon Shults, Saikou Diallo, Ross Gore, Justin E. Lane Secularism and Nonreligion August 2020 Abstract: The abandonment of supernatural religious beliefs and rituals seems to occur quite easily in some contexts, but post-supernaturalist cultures require a…
Keynote Address to the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion, August 12, 2018 Dr. Wesley J. Wildman CMAC Executive Director Dr. Wesley J. Wildman gave the following keynote lecture at the 2018 International Association for the Cognitive Science…
Editors; Saikou Y. Diallo, Wesley J. Wildman, F. LeRon Shults, Andreas Tolk About the book: This uniquely inspirational and practical book explores human simulation, which is the application of computational modeling and simulation to research subjects in the humanities disciplines.…
PhD. Candidate John Balch American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Denver, CO November 17-20, 2018 The American Academy of Religion brings thousands of professors and students, authors and publishers, religious leaders and interested laypersons to its Annual Meeting each year.…
Founding Director Patrick McNamara, Doctoral Fellow Kendra Holt Moore, Collaborating Specialist Yianis Papelis, Director Siakou Diallo, and Executive Director Wesley J. Wildman Dreaming, Vol 28(3) September 2018 Abstract: We pilot tested the efficacy of a virtual reality-based imagery rehearsal and rescripting…
Diane Proudfoot, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury (New Zealand), answers the question: ‘What values or norms define excellent philosophy of religion?’ at PhilosophyofReligion.Org Read it Here
Charles Taliaferro, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, answers the question: ‘What values or norms define excellent philosophy of religion?’ at PhilosophyofReligion.Org Read it Here
Timothy Knepper, Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Drake University, answers the question: ‘What values or norms define excellent philosophy of religion?’ at PhilosophyofReligion.Org Read it Here
Here’s an interesting fact: no other animals can keep a beat as well as humans can. From drumming to dancing to marching in time, humans have a unique knack for synchrony – repetitive, rhythmically entrained, social behavior. Researchers have found…