The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

• Corporate Author: SpringerLink (Online service)
• Other Authors: Voland, Eckart (Editor), Schiefenhövel, Wulf (Editor)
• Format: Electronic eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg : Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2009.
• Series: The Frontiers Collection,
• Subjects: Life sciences.; Religion.; Modern philosophy.; Religion > Philosophy.; Evolutionary biology.; Anthropology.; Life Sciences.; Evolutionary Biology.; Modern Philosophy.; Philosophy of Religion.; Religious Studies, general.

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection...

Table of Contents:

• Evaluating the Evolutionary Status of Religiosity and Religiousnessreligiousness
• Gods, Gains, and Genes
• How Some Major Components of Religion Could Have Evolved by Natural Selection?
• The Correlated History of Social Organization, Moralitymorality , and Religion
• Is There a Particular Role for Ideational Aspects of Religions in Human Behavioral Ecology?
• Talk and Tradition: Why the Least Interesting Components of Religion May Be the Most Evolutionarily Important
• The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation
• The African Interregnum: The “Where,” “When,” and “Why” of the Evolution of Religion
• Explaining the Inexplicable: Traditional and Syncretistic Religiosity in Melanesia
• Authoritarianism,Religiousness,religiousness and Conservatismconservatism : Is “Obedience to Authority” the Explanation for Their Clustering, Universality and Evolution?
• Cognitive Foundations in the Development of a Religious Mind
• Religious Belief and Neurocognitive Processes of the Self
• Neurologic Constraints on Evolutionary Theories of Religion
• On Shared Psychological Mechanisms of Religiousnessreligiousness and Delusional Beliefs
• Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity
• The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance
• The Evolution of Evolutionary Theories of Religion
• Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion – What They Can and What They Cannot Explain (Yet).