Science on Religion Research News
All creatures great and microscopic: Viruses, DNA, and religious anthropology
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- Published on 05 August 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 1240
When we think of ourselves as human beings, it is often as separate from the rest of our world in some sense. This seems natural enough to most of us much of the time because we are self-conscious. We look out at the natural world and this perspective seems to place us in a privileged – and distinct – position. We are also of course capable of manipulating large parts of our world and this too seems to place "us" over against "nature." Many traditional religious views of what it means to be a human being (“religious anthropology”) reinforce these common-sense understandings by enthroning humanity somewhere between the merely natural and the supernatural realms. Nevertheless, recent scientific discoveries have been disclosing just how deeply integrated into nature we really are.
Fundamentalism linked to intimate partner violence
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- Published on 27 July 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
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Christianity has a long association with patriarchy and the domination of women by men. Biblical passages such as Ephesians 5:22-23 – “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (KJV) – have long been used to justify the cruel, even violent, treatment of women by men, especially between intimate partners (both married and unmarried). These tendencies, along with other elements in many Christian theologies, have led to the development of feminist theologies, some of which have found the misogynistic elements within the tradition so pervasive that they have progressed beyond Christianity entirely to become “post-Christian” in outlook. “Religion” is thus often reasonably suspected of compliance with, if not of actually causing, the abuse of women. One might expect to find a link between religiosity and domestic violence given this background in the theological literature. However, a recent study has found that Christian fundamentalism in particular and not religiosity in general is associated with higher rates of intimate partner violence.
Religious extremism linked to anxiety
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- Published on 17 July 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 2871
Religion, said Marx, is the “opiate of the masses.” This well-known phrase has come to represent the pacifying impact of religion, especially popular religion, used for the social control (or exploitation) of the majority by the elite. The assurance of heaven or some other supernatural good is meant to take the sting and uncertainty out of everyday life. New research at York University suggests that religion may well have a tranquilizing impact. So, updating the expression slightly, we might ask, is religion the Valium of the masses?
Bruya's Effortless Attention
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- Published on 29 June 2010
- Written by Nathaniel Barrett
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Everyone has experiences of being “in the zone.” These usually occur while engaged in some
challenging but enjoyable activity, like playing basketball or ballroom dancing. When the challenges presented by the activity are matched by our skills, they are perceived as opportunities rather than obstacles, and our mind enters a groove of exceptionally focused and yet effortlessly maintained attention. During such episodes, awareness merges with action so that we “lose ourselves” in the activity. We feel secure and in control, not because the activity has become predictable, but because we are able to stay engaged, spontaneous, and “in the moment,” responding to challenges as they arise. Such experiences are richly rewarding, partly because they accompany our highest levels of performance. But more importantly, we enjoy such experiences for their own sake: their extraordinarily rich texture constitutes its own reward, regardless of objective measures of performance. Brian Bruya’s new book, Effortless Attention: A New Perspective on the Cognitive Science of Attention and Action (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010), brings together an impressive collection of essays that explore these experiences within the context of contemporary cognitive science, focusing especially on the implications of effortless attention for current models of attention and action control.
Biocultural models of the evolution of religion need to take onboard ‘The sacral or divine kingship’
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- Published on 24 June 2010
- Written by Patrick McNamara
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Most accounts of the evolutionary origins of religion refer to the shamanistic complex of behaviors as the first set of behaviors that
were recognizably ‘religious’. According to some scholars, the shamans of the upper Paleolithic (and of those traditional societies that persisted into the modern period) traveled, via altered states of consciousness, to the spirit world to attain healing powers and other ritual powers. They would then put some but not all of these powers to work in the service of their communities – or so the story goes. Some powers were used to harm other people or to exert control over the tribal group. But an alternative account of the evolutionary origins of religion suggests that that the shamans should not really be considered religious figures if we want to distinguish between religious and magical rituals.
Conservative emotional avoidance
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- Published on 08 July 2010
- Written by Connor Wood
- Hits: 3712
Do liberals and conservatives really see the world differently? Maybe it’s more like they feel it differently. Recent research (e.g., Tomkins 1995) has suggested that conservatives and liberals experience different sorts of emotional responses. Specifically, some emotions, like joy and distress, are more associated with people who identify as liberal, while emotions like anger, disgust, and excitement are more commonly felt by conservatives. However, a recent Italian study suggests that the main difference between conservatives and liberals is more likely to be that conservatives avoid emotions while liberals try to experience them.
Moral Modules
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- Published on 02 July 2010
- Written by Connor Wood
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From a certain perspective, life seems to be composed of many different spheres that interact with each other to create a whole human being. These spheres might include morality, romance, work, family, and artistic pursuit. For many, religion is an area in which a number of different spheres overlap; these might include faith, concern with the afterlife, community, and, in many cases, morality. This means, of course, that most people would find it odd to say, “I’m a good person, and that makes me religious.” Instead you’d need to, say, be a good person and believe in God and read some scripture once in a while to qualify. (Of course, these standards can vary greatly, depending on who’s being asked.) But what if these separate spheres were, themselves, made of separate spheres? Duke University philosopher Owen Flanagan and his colleague R.A. Williams think that, for morality at least, this may the case.
New Journal: Religion, Brain & Behavior
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- Published on 11 June 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 3425
In recent years, there has been a steady increase in the amount and the quality of scientific research on the biocultural aspects of
religion, a representative sampling of which can be found here at IBCSR.org. Research into the biological roots and cultural manifestations of religion is pursued rightly by a myriad of scientific disciplines, each bringing needed perspective, and analytical tools to their task. IBCSR is pleased to announce the launch of a new journal, Religion, Brain & Behavior (RBB), published by Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Group. RBB aims to provide a vehicle for the advancement of current biological approaches to religion at every level from brain to behavior. With RBB, IBCSR continues to advance the goal of uniting multiple disciplinary perspectives in order to gain greater understanding of the multiple dimensions of religion.
Religion and the social utility of free will
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- Published on 22 June 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 2680
Belief in, or at least debate about, free will has long been a staple in ethical, legal, religious and philosophical discourse. In many
contexts, the ability to make a free choice is the precondition for being guilty of committing a violation of a legal or religious code of behavior. That’s why children are not usually found guilty of a crime even when they are known to have engaged in the activity prohibited by law when done by “willful” adults. A recent article suggests that belief in free will serves important functions in keeping society together and proposes that religion may be a key factor in supporting that belief.
Want a successful career? Better believe in free will
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- Published on 10 June 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 1147
There is no shortage of career advice in the air as students graduate from high school and
college during these difficult economic times. While our advisors are correct that it is best to tailor one’s resume to each job application and our parents are of course correct that it is essential to be friendly with one’s colleagues, another bit of advice probably goes unsaid. If you really want to succeed and be happy in your career, you’d do well to believe in the freedom of your own will. A recent study by Tyler F. Stillman, et al, suggests that belief in one’s own free will “predicted better career attitudes and actual job performance.”
Mortality, mourning, and our primate cousins
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- Published on 17 May 2010
- Written by Derek Michaud
- Hits: 2671
It has long been fashionable for us to speak of ourselves as a unique species. We have liked to think of ourselves as the thinkers, toolmakers, homebuilders, and the creators of culture of the animal kingdom. As we have learned more about the species with whom we share the planet, one by one these markers of our uniqueness have begun to fade away into a complex picture of our place on one of countless branches of a tree of life where continuity is at least as important as diversity. Still, the realm of religion remains largely ours, and comfortably perhaps, uniquely ours. We denominate ourselves, homo religiosus, and in the process report on who and what we are. By religion, and all its attendant qualities, characteristics, and habits, many of us mark out a territory different from (superior to?) our animal cousins. The findings of two recent studies of chimpanzees may hint at far more continuity between homo religiosus and our nearest relatives.
More Articles...
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- End-of-life care: is spirituality important?
- The human drama behind The Origin of Species
- A look back at 2009
- God: Produced or perceived by the brain?
- Wallace's Contemplative Science
- Religious and mystical experiences common among Americans
- Parkinson’s and religious semantics
- Public opinion and the “conflict” between religion and science
- Toward an anatomy of religiosity
- V.V. Raman's Truth and Tension in Science and Religion
- Religious, not spiritual
- The neural basis of belief
- None of the above: the growth of the “non-religious”
- Religious activism marked by commitment, not ideology
- The impact of religious beliefs on pain perception
