Religion in Mind is a 2001 text which summarizes and extends the advances in the cognitive study of religion throughout the 1990s. It uses empirical research from psychology and anthropology to illuminate various components of religious belief, ritual, and experience. The book examines cognitive dimensions of religion within a naturalistic view of culture, while respecting the phenomenology of religion and drawing together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion, and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors focus on phenomena such as belief-fixation and transmission; attributions of agency; anthropomorphizing; counterintuitive religious representations; the well-formedness of religious rituals; links between religious representations and emotions; and the development of god concepts. The work encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages between scholars from different fields and will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also will interest more general readers in religion and science.

This book argues that human beings must replace ontological misinformation with a clear and accurate view of the nature of reality in order to overcome conflict, violence, and suffering, and in order to survive as a species. The advanced extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) in our midst now is trying to help humankind see its way forward to a correct ontology by means of pedagogical displays of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). This book considers UAP in the context of geopolitics, physics, mathematics, and philosophy to demonstrates the richness of the creative acculturation unfolding now between humankind and ETI. This book also asks what kind of ethics an advanced, intelligent extraterrestrial species might possess, and how human beings can transform their own understanding of ethics to best participate with ETI. Applying the ontological interpretation of the quantum theory articulated by physicist and philosopher David J. Bohm to various aspects of ETI/UAP, the book also considers how ETI is clearly warning humankind about the dangers of nuclear weapons and other nuclear technologies. Practically, the book argues that we urgently must abolish nuclear weapons and other nuclear technologies so that Homo sapiens sapiens can survive and flourish.

This book throws down a challenge to the field of religious studies. It offers new and exciting approaches for our understanding of religious experience, drawn from the methods of cognitive science, neuropsychology, developmental psychology, philosophy of mind, anthropology, and the many other fields that have joined together to investigate the phenomenon of consciousness.

Religion in Mind summarizes and extends the past decade's advances in the cognitive study of religion. Its aim is to use empirical research from psychology and anthropology to understand different components of religious belief, ritual and experience. The book draws together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion and cognitive scientists and encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages among scholars from different fields. It will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science and also to the general reader interested in religion and science.