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Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not (Paperback)
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Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not (Paperback)
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"One of the pioneers of the cognitive science of religion, adds
insight to the interdisciplinary discussion in this provocatively
titled work .... McCauley's work is erudite, precise, well
argued."-Library Journal 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.
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