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Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not
Robert N. McCauley
352 pages
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21 line drawings
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235x156mm
978-0-19-982726-8
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Hardback
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26 January 2012
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- A new argument for the cognitive relationship of science and religion
- Provides fresh criticism of and rebuttal to the ongoing science/religion debate
The battle between religion and science, competing methods of knowing ourselves and our world, has been raging for many centuries. Now scientists themselves are looking at cognitive foundations of religion—and arriving at some surprising conclusions.
Over the course of the past two decades, scholars have employed insights gleaned from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines to illuminate the study of religion. In Why Religion is Natural and Science Is Not, Robert N. McCauley, one of the founding fathers of the cognitive science of religion, argues that our minds are better suited to
religious belief than to scientific inquiry. Drawing on the latest research and illustrating his argument with commonsense examples, McCauley argues that religion has existed for many thousands of years in every society because the kinds of explanations it provides are precisely the kinds that come naturally to human minds. Science, on the other hand, is a much more recent and rare development because it reaches radical conclusions and requires a kind of abstract thinking that only arises consistently under very specific social conditions. Religion makes intuitive sense to us, while science requires a lot of work. McCauley then draws out the larger implications of these findings. The naturalness of religion, he suggests, means that science poses no real threat to it, while the
unnaturalness of science puts it in a surprisingly precarious position.
Rigorously argued and elegantly written, this provocative book will appeal to anyone interested in the ongoing debate between religion and science, and in the nature and workings of the human mind.Readership: Scholars of science and religion or new atheism; casual readers of Dawkins, Gould, etc.
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Robert N. McCauley, William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor and Director, Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Emory University Robert N. McCauley is William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor and Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University. He is the co-author of Rethinking Religion and Bringing Ritual to Mind, editor of The Churchlands and Their Critics, and co-editor of Mind and Religion.
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"clearly and engagingly written" - Eleanor Rosch, Times Higher Education
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Chapter One
Natural Cognition
Chapter Two
Maturational Naturalness
Chapter Three
Unnatural Science
Chapter Four
Natural Religion
Chapter Five
Surprising Consequences
References
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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