Over at HuffPo Religion, Kate Fridkis ponders the protean term “spirituality” and reasonably wonders what it means. It is pretty common these days to hear someone say they are not religious but instead are “spiritual.” When asked what they mean by this, the response often involves some combination of the following words: peace, harmony, bliss, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'cognition'
What is “Spirituality”?
June 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Definitions of Religion, Emotions and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Tags:absolute unitary being·Andrew Newberg·biology of belief·cognition·connection·cosmic consciousness·David Lewis-Williams·Dean Hamer·emotions·Eugene d'Aquili·feelings·Kate Fridkis·meditation·mystery·self dissolution·self transcendence·spiritual·spirituality·The God Gene·Why God Won't Go Away
Memory Manipulation and Religious Experiences
May 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Emotions and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Though I have had my disagreements with William Saletan in the past — we have briefly debated whether “race” is a biologically valid classification (it isn’t) — I want to be the first to congratulate him on a series of articles (“The Memory Doctor”) he is running over at Slate. The subject is memory and [...]
Tags:cognition·confabulation·Elizabeth Loftus·fabrications·imagination·memories·memory·past lives·reincarnation·suggestibility·William Saletan
Consciousness and The Supernatural
May 21st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
A few months ago, the cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams published Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion. When I saw the title, I worried that perhaps I had been scooped. Now that I have nearly finished the book, my worry has passed. Lewis-Williams’ title is a bit deceiving, given that the book combines [...]
Tags:A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness·altered states of consciousness·cognition·consciousness·David Lewis-Williams·Francis Crick·Gerald Edelman·Merlin Donald·Richard Dawkins·Sam Harris·supernatural thinking·The Conscious Brain·Thomas Nagel·What Is It Like To Be a Bat?
New Hominid Species and “The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion”
April 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Cognition and Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
You would have to be living on a deserted island not to know that yet another transitional hominid fossil was unveiled yesterday. The new species, dated to approximately 2 million years ago, has been named Australopithecus sediba.
Just as evolutionary theory predicts for this period in time, these new fossils have some traits that are more [...]
Why “Cognition and Religion”?
February 10th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion
In recent decades, some of the best work on the origins of religion deal with the cognitive architecture which supports supernatural beliefs. Most researchers in this area think that supernatural or religious thinking naturally arises from the workings of the brain-mind. Seen from this perspective, religion is a “byproduct” of normal cognition. There was not, [...]
Tags:agency attribution·byproduct theorists·cognition·dualism·pattern imposition