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Recent findings in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology provide important insights to the processes which make religious beliefs and behaviors such efficient attractors in and across various cultural settings. The specific salience of religious ideas is based on the fact that they are 'counter-intuitive': they contradict our intuitive expectations of how entities normally behave. Counter-intuitive ideas are only produced by a mind capable of crossing the boundaries that separate such ontological domains as persons, living things, "and solid" objects. The evolution of such a mind has only taken place in the human species. How certain kinds of counter-intuitive ideas are selected for a religious use is discussed from varying angles. Cognitive considerations are thus related to the traditions of comparative religion. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.
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HOW RELIGION WORKS
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HOW RELIGION WORKS Towards a New Cognitive Science of Religion BY
ILKKA PYYSIÄINEN
BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2003
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pyysiäinen, Ilkka. How religion works : towards a new cognitive science of religion / by Ilkka Pyysiäinen p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 90-04-13273-2 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Psychology, Religious. I. Title. BL53. P98 2003 200’.1’9–dc21
2003052462
ISBN 90 04 13273 2 © Copyright 2003 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change printed in the netherlands
CONTENTS
Preface .........................................................................................
vii
CHAPTER ONE Introduction: Cognitive Approach to Religion .... The Category of ‘Religion’ ..................................................... The Cognitive Approach ........................................................
1 1 5
CHAPTER TWO God and Transcendence ...................................... ‘God’ as an Emic Concept ..................................................... Superhuman Beings, Religion and Science ........................... Intentional Agents ................................................................... Counter-Intuitiveness of Gods ................................................ Summary .................................................................................
9 9 12 14 18 22
CHAPTER THREE Religion and Culture ......................................... Geertz and the Concept of ‘Culture’ ..................................... Geertz and Symbolism ............................................................ Geertz on Religion as a Symbolic Cultural System .............. Summary .................................................................................
25 25 33 44 52
CHAPTER FOUR Religion and the Social ....................................... On the Sociological Background of Durkheim’s Theory of Religion .................................................................. Religion and Society ............................................................... Religion as Symbolic of the Society – A Critique ................. Religion and Society Reconsidered .........