Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy (Advances in Experimental Philosophy)

"Experimental philosophy has blossomed into a variety of philosophical fields including ethics, epistemology, metaphysics and philosophy of language. But there has been very little experimental philosophical research in the domain of philosophy of religion. Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy demonstrates how cognitive science of religion has the methodological and conceptual resources to become a form of experimental philosophy of religion. Addressing a wide variety of empirical claims that are of interest to philosophers and psychologists of religion, a team of psychologists and philosophers apply data from the psychology of religion to important problems in the philosophy of religion including the psychology of religious diversity; the psychology of substance dualism; the problem of evil and the relation between religious belief and empathy; and the cognitive science explaining the formation of intuitions that unwittingly guide philosophers of religion when formulating arguments. Bringing together authors and researchers who have made important contributions to interdisciplinary research on religion in the last decade, Advances in Religion, Cognitive Science, and Experimental Philosophy provides new ways of approaching core philosophical and psychological problems."--Bloomsbury Publishing. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Figures and Tables 1. Introduction: Cognitive Science of Religion and Its Philosophical Implications 2. Is Religion or Science Debunked by the Evolution of Cognitive Faculties? 3. Cognitive Science, Evil, and God 4. The Explanatory Challenge of Religious Diversity 5. A Cognitive Psychological Account of Reasoning about Ritual Efficacy 6. Atheism, Inference, and Intuition 7. How Do Philosophers Evaluate Natural Theological Arguments? An Experimental Philosophical Investigation 8. An Ecological Theory of Gods’ Minds 9. Remembering Past Lives 10. The Death We Fear Is Not Our Own: The Folk Psychology of Souls Revisited and Reframed Index Experimental philosophy has blossomed into a variety of philosophical fields. But there has been very little experimental philosophical research in the domain of philosophy of religion. This book shows how cognitive science of religion has the methodological and conceptual resources to become a form of experimental philosophy of religion, and provides new ways of approaching core philosophical and psychological problems