Religion Explained: the human instincts that fashion gods, spirits and ancestors

Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Religion Explained shows how this aspect of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. This brilliant and controversial book gives readers the first scientific explanation for what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and where it comes from. Formerly at Princeton, King's College, Cambridge and the University of Lyon, Pascal Boyer is Professor of Anthropology at Washington University in St Louis, MissouriWhile human religious practice and belief are extraordinarily varied, they are nevertheless not infinitely so. The varieties of belief have provided generations of anthropologists and religious scholars with material for research; there have been fewer attempts to explore what religious beliefs have in common - and fewer still that have been convincing. Following in the footsteps of Noam Chomsky and Steven Pinker's explorations of what languages have in common beneath their vast superficial variety, Pascal Boyer explores the commonalities of religious belief, bringing the new tools of cognitive science and evolutionary psychology to bear on the ways in which beliefs reflect human needs and the ways in which our minds work. This is no sense an attempt to explain religion away, or to reduce it to simplistic nostrums; Boyer is himself an anthropologist, and rejects almost all the usual obvious, but unsatisfying, explanations for religion, in a book that is certainly ambitious and provocative, but also a rich exploration of this profound and important area of human experience - an area that is almost as universal and central to our shared humanity as our common use of language. Many Of Us Have Endless Questions About Faith, Spirituality, And The Place Of Religious Thinking In The World. But One Central Question - Perhaps The Central Question - About Religion Has Remained Strangely Inaccessible: Why Do We Have It At All? Until Recently, If You'd Asked This Of Most Anthropologists, They'd Have Told You That The Question Was Ill-formulated And Too Vague To Be Of Scientific Interest. In Fact, The Intellectual Tools For Thinking About The Problem Simply Didn't Exist. Now, Says Pascal Boyer, They Do, Provided By Theories And Research In Evolutionary Biology And Cognitive Psychology.--jacket. What Is The Origin? -- What Supernatural Concepts Are Like -- The Kind Of Mind It Takes -- Why Gods And Spirits? -- Why Do Gods And Spirits Matter? -- Why Is Religion About Death? -- Why Rituals? -- Why Doctrines, Exclusion And Violence? -- Why Belief? Pascal Boyer. Also Published In Great Britain Under The Title: Religion Explained : The Human Instincts That Fashion Gods, Spirits And Ancestors. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 343-357) And Index. Many of our questions about religion, says the internationally renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, were once mysteries, but they no longer are: we are beginning to know how to answer questions such as'Why do people have religion?'and'Why is religion the way it is?'Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Boyer shows how one of the most fascinating aspects of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. And Man Creates God tells readers, for the first time, what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and how it originates. It is a beautifully written, very accessible book by an anthropologist who is highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic. As a scientific explanation for religious feeling, it is sure to arouse controversy. Many of our questions about religion, says the internationally renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, were once mysteries, but they no longer we are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" and "Why is religion the way it is?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Boyer shows how one of the most fascinating aspects of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. And Man Creates God tells readers, for the first time, what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and how it originates. It is a beautifully written, very accessible book by an anthropologist who is highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic. As a scientific explanation for religious feeling, it is sure to arouse controversy. Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, this volume tells readers what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of and how it originates A neighbor in the village tells me that I should protect myself against witches.