The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection pressure led to religious practices becoming an evolved human trait, i.e. an adaptive answer to the conditions of living and surviving that prevailed among our prehistoric ancestors. This aim is pursued by a team of expert authors from a range of disciplines. Their contributions examine the relevant physiological, emotional, cognitive and social processes. The resulting understanding of the functional interplay of these processes gives valuable insights into the biological roots and benefits of religion.

List of contents

Evaluating the Evolutionary Status of Religiosity and Religiousnessreligiousness .- Gods, Gains, and Genes.- How Some Major Components of Religion Could Have Evolved by Natural Selection?.- The Correlated History of Social Organization, Moralitymorality , and Religion.- Is There a Particular Role for Ideational Aspects of Religions in Human Behavioral Ecology?.- Talk and Tradition: Why the Least Interesting Components of Religion May Be the Most Evolutionarily Important.- The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation.- The African Interregnum: The "Where," "When," and "Why" of the Evolution of Religion.- Explaining the Inexplicable: Traditional and Syncretistic Religiosity in Melanesia.- Authoritarianism,Religiousness,religiousness and Conservatismconservatism : Is "Obedience to Authority" the Explanation for Their Clustering, Universality and Evolution?.- Cognitive Foundations in the Development of a Religious Mind.- Religious Belief and Neurocognitive Processes of the Self.- Neurologic Constraints on Evolutionary Theories of Religion.- On Shared Psychological Mechanisms of Religiousnessreligiousness and Delusional Beliefs.- Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity.- The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance.- The Evolution of Evolutionary Theories of Religion.- Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion - What They Can and What They Cannot Explain (Yet).

About the author

Wulf Schiefenhövel is professor for medical psychology and ethnomedicine at the University of Munich and head of the human ethology group at the Max-Planck-Institute in Andechs, Germany. His main research interests are human ethology and evolutionary medicine, within which he focuses on sexuality and reproduction, human birth behavior, early infancy, language and cognitive concepts as well as the genetic and oral history of Melanesian populations.

Prof. Dr. Eckart Voland, geboren 1949 in Hann, Münden (Niedersachsen), studierte Biologie und Sozialwissenschaften an der Universität Göttingen und promovierte 1978 mit einer Arbeit zum Sozialverhalten von Primaten. Seit 1995 ist er Professor für Philosophie der Biowissenschaften am Zentrum für Philosophie und Grundlagen der Wissenschaft der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen. Dort forscht und lehrt er vorrangig auf den Gebieten der Human-Soziobiologie und der Biophilosophie, insbesondere der evolutionären Ethik, Ästhetik und Religionswissenschaft. Er ist Autor zahlreicher Bücher und im Beirat mehrerer internationaler Fachzeitschriften.

Summary

In a Darwinian world, religious behavior - just like other behaviors - is likely to have undergone a process of natural selection in which it was rewarded in the evolutionary currency of reproductive success. This book aims to provide a better understanding of the social scenarios in which selection pressure led to religious practices becoming an evolved human trait, i.e. an adaptive answer to the conditions of living and surviving that prevailed among our prehistoric ancestors. This aim is pursued by a team of expert authors from a range of disciplines. Their contributions examine the relevant physiological, emotional, cognitive and social processes. The resulting understanding of the functional interplay of these processes gives valuable insights into the biological roots and benefits of religion.

Additional text

Aus den Rezensionen:
 “... Das Buch mit ... Beiträgen aus den verschiedenen Disziplinen ... versucht ... erste Antworte zu geben. ... sind die in diesen Beiträgen gegebenen ersten Antworten sehr instruktiv und legen eine positive Beantwortung … erst einmal nahe. Wie es der Klappentext formuliert, geben die verschiedenen analysierten Prozesse und ihr Zusammenwirken einen fundierten Einblick ... bieten die lesenswerten Beiträge ... Stoff zum intensiven eigenen Nachdenken und zu einer notwendigen Diskussion auf einer breiten gesellschaftlichen Basis ...“ (PD. Dr. Stefan Schneckenburger, in: evo-magazin.de, February/2011)

Report

Aus den Rezensionen:
"... Das Buch mit ... Beiträgen aus den verschiedenen Disziplinen ... versucht ... erste Antworte zu geben. ... sind die in diesen Beiträgen gegebenen ersten Antworten sehr instruktiv und legen eine positive Beantwortung ... erst einmal nahe. Wie es der Klappentext formuliert, geben die verschiedenen analysierten Prozesse und ihr Zusammenwirken einen fundierten Einblick ... bieten die lesenswerten Beiträge ... Stoff zum intensiven eigenen Nachdenken und zu einer notwendigen Diskussion auf einer breiten gesellschaftlichen Basis ..." (PD. Dr. Stefan Schneckenburger, in: evo-magazin.de, February/2011)

Product details

• Assisted by: Schiefenhövel (Editor), Schiefenhövel (Editor), Wulf Schiefenhövel (Editor), Eckar Voland (Editor), Eckart Voland (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2009
• EAN: 9783642001277
• ISBN: 978-3-642-00127-7
• No. of pages: 305
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 22 mm x 248 mm
• Weight: 641 g
• Illustrations: X, 305 p.
• Series: The Frontiers Collection; The Frontiers Collection
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology