We develop a cultural evolutionary theory of the origins of prosocial religions and apply it to resolve two puzzles in human psychology and cultural history: (1) the rise of large-scale cooperation among strangers and, simultaneously, (2) the spread of prosocial religions in the last 10-12 millennia. We argue that these two developments were importantly linked and mutually energizing. We explain how a package of culturally evolved religious beliefs and practices characterized by increasingly potent, moralizing, supernatural agents, credible displays of faith, and other psychologically active elements conducive to social solidarity promoted high fertility rates and large-scale cooperation with co-religionists, often contributing to success in intergroup competition and conflict. In turn, prosocial religious beliefs and practices spread and aggregated as these successful groups expanded, or were copied by less successful groups. This synthesis is grounded in the idea that although religious beliefs and practices originally arose as nonadaptive by-products of innate cognitive functions, particular cultural variants were then selected for their prosocial effects in a long-term, cultural evolutionary process. This framework (1) reconciles key aspects of the adaptationist and by-product approaches to the origins of religion, (2) explains a variety of empirical observations that have not received adequate attention, and (3) generates novel predictions. Converging lines of evidence drawn from diverse disciplines provide empirical support while at the same time encouraging new research directions and opening up new questions for exploration and debate.

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The cultural evolution of prosocial religions.

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1803&context=faithandphilosophy

The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory

Improved information literacy and quantitative literacy can help individuals overcome the information costs that discourage political participation and policy debate. Using place and public data as a touchstone, the students of a college political science course partnered with a group of middle school students to apply technology to a shared project. Together they learned techniques for representing demographic and geographic data with a variety of media, including Web 2.0 tools and GIS software. They created an online site designed to address the information needs of the local community, with a focus on promoting users’ information and quantitative literacy and encouraging and facilitating the use of public information.

The Trinity

A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

THE disproportion between poverty and unemployment and the abundance made possible by power production is leading men everywhere to question the basis of a political and economic system which permits the existence of such a paradox of maldistribution. It is no longer merely a question whether effective measures could be taken if those in authority possessed sufficient knowledge and understanding of the situation, but whether the present system permits them to take any effective action without the whole system being radically reformed. The non-success which has thus far attended the efforts or pleadings of politicians is not only fast breeding a general distrust of their policies but also a disposition to consider far-reaching changes in the structure of society.

Knowledge and action

Some contemporary philosophers defend the claim that it is rational to believe that God exists even if that belief is not based on evidence. Many such defenses are developed from a religious epistemology inspired by the work of Thomas Reid’s “common sense” epistemology that posits the existence of numerous cognitive faculties that nonreflectively deliver beliefs. Reid argued that one is justified in believing the automatic deliverances of these faculties unless evidence mounts to contradict them. Reformed Epistemologists have suggested that, likewise, one should give the benefit of the doubt to beliefs that are produced by a god-faculty or sensus divinitatis. Recent research in the cognitive science of religion provides new reasons to believe that humans are naturally endowed with cognitive faculties that stimulate belief in the divine. We discuss these scientific findings in relation to the arguments of Reformed Epistemologists and also with regard to arguments against the rational justification of religious beliefs.

http://www.apologeticsinthechurch.com/uploads/7/4/5/6/7456646/jaar-clark-barrett-reid.pdf

Reidian Religious Epistemology and the Cognitive Science of Religion

Reformed epistemology and cognitive science have remarkably converged on belief in God. Reformed epistemology holds that belief in God is basic— that is, belief in God is a natural, non-inferential belief that is immediately produced by a cognitive faculty. Cognitive science of religion also holds that belief in gods is (often) non-reflectively and instinctively produced—that is, non-inferentially and automatically produced by a cognitive faculty or system. But there are differences. In this paper, we will show some remarkable points of convergence, and a few points of divergence, between Reformed epistemology and the cognitive science of religion.

/pdf/reformed-epistemology-and-the-cognitive-science-of-religion-3t84vro6kv.pdf

Reformed epistemology and the cognitive science of religion

Recent research has suggested that humans have a robust tendency to default to teleological (i.e., purpose-based) explanations of natural phenomena. However, because samples have previously been heavily drawn from Western cultures, it is unclear whether this is a universal cognitive bias or whether prior findings are a product of Western philosophical and theological traditions. We evaluated these possibilities by administering a speeded judgment task to adults in China – a country that underwent nearly 40 years of institutionally enforced atheism in the Maoist era and which has markedly different cultural beliefs than those found in Western societies. Results indicated that Chinese adults, like Western adults, have a propensity to favor scientifically unwarranted teleological explanations under processing constraints. However, results also yielded suggestive evidence that Chinese culture may attenuate baseline tendencies to be teleological. Overall, this study provides the strongest evidence to d...

Cultural influences on the teleological stance: evidence from China

The Evolutionary Psychology of Chinese Religion: Pre-Qin High Gods as Punishers and Rewarders

The oppression of Chinese women is typically blamed on Confucianism. We present a version of Confucianism that relies on the metaphysics of the I Ching, one of the "canonical" Confucian texts, and on more characteristic Confucian doctrines. These metaphysical, anthropological, and ethical beliefs would, if fully implemented, replace the early Confucian hierarchy based partly on gender with a hierarchy based on virtue. This would in turn legitimate the full participation of women in society. Through the "canonical" Confucian texts we reconstruct the philosophical grounds for a Confucian vision of gender equity as grounded in a Confucian view of human nature and human excellence.

Kelly James Clark

Papers

Reidian Religious Epistemology and the Cognitive Science of Religion

Reformed epistemology and the cognitive science of religion

Cultural influences on the teleological stance: evidence from China

The Evolutionary Psychology of Chinese Religion: Pre-Qin High Gods as Punishers and Rewarders

A confucian defense of gender equity