TY  - BOOK
AU  - Pyysiäinen,Ilkka
TI  - How Religion Works: Towards a New Cognitive Science of Religion 
T2  - Brill Book Archive Part 1, ISBN: 9789004472495
SN  - 9789004496217
AV  - BL53 
U1  - 200 23
PY  - 2001///
CY  - Leiden; , Boston
PB  - BRILL
KW  - Cognitive science
KW  - Psychology, Religious
KW  - Religion and Psychology
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index
N2  - Recent findings in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology provide important insights to the processes which make religious beliefs and behaviors such efficient attractors in and across various cultural settings. The specific salience of religious ideas is based on the fact that they are 'counter-intuitive': they contradict our intuitive expectations of how entities normally behave. Counter-intuitive ideas are only produced by a mind capable of crossing the boundaries that separate such ontological domains as persons, living things, and solid objects. The evolution of such a mind has only taken place in the human species. How certain kinds of counter-intuitive ideas are selected for a religious use is discussed from varying angles. Cognitive considerations are thus related to the traditions of comparative religion. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004496217
ER  -