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…
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…
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…
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…
From hallucinogenic drugs to deep brain stimulation, we are constantly finding new ways to foster or deepen spiritual experiences. The sheer range of technology available today that aims to create, guide, and optimize spiritual experiences is dizzying. You may be…
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…
In April 2011, the first issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior was published by Taylor & Francis, adorned then as today with William Blake’s “Web of Religion”. The journal provides “a vehicle for the advancement of current biological approaches to understanding religion…
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…
A Cross-Cultural Examination of Ritual as a Signaling and Solidarity-Building Strategy Kate J. Stockly, Stephanie Arel, Megan K. DeFranza, Damian Ruck, Luke Matthews Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, Vol. 14, No. 1 August 2020 Abstract: Prior research…
As one might expect given the title, Roy Rappaport in Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (Cambridge University Press, 1999) spends a great deal of time exploring the notion of ritual in this book. A majority of the…
Nearly a decade and a half ago, an elite group of scientists gathered in Berkeley, California, to participate in a groundbreaking project called Science and the Spiritual Quest. Their object was to share insights from science’s front lines about the…