Religion, Disease, and Immunology

Zusatztext An intelligent and wholly 21st-century perspective on religion. Thomas B. Ellis masterfully explains how the behavioral immune system is causally responsible for many of the curiosities surrounding human religiosity. A forward-pointing contribution to the scientific study of religion. Zusammenfassung This book argues that religion has emerged over evolutionary time as a strategy for managing the transmission, contraction, and eradication of infectious disease. From purity and pollution codes to blood sacrifices and irrational beliefs, the book shows how religion supports not only the physiological immune system, but the behavioral and psychological immune systems as well. The book also addresses those moments when it appears that religion becomes maladaptive, that is, when religion causes “autoimmune problems,” such as celibacy and anti-vaccination. Engaging material ranging from evolutionary and social psychology to human behavioral ecology, biological anthropology, Darwinian medicine, and religious studies, the book proposes that in order to understand the human animal’s enduring fascination with religion, one must take into account the enduring need to manage infectious disease. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Introduction: Approaching Religion With the Scientific Attitude2. The Biology of Religion: There Will Never be a Darwin for the Crown of Thorns? 3. Religion as Extended Phenotype: The Behavioral Immune System4. Religion’s Vital Lie: The Psychological Immune System5. Religion’s Curative Violence: The Physiological Immune System6. At War with the Body: When Religion Becomes the Infection7. Conclusion: Religion and Public Health, Today and Tomorrow BibliographyIndex

Product details

• Authors: Thomas B Ellis, Thomas B. Ellis, Ellis Thomas B.
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9781350188242
• ISBN: 978-1-350-18824-2
• No. of pages: 248
• Series: Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Religion: general, reference works; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Social structure research; RELIGION / History, RELIGION / Religion & Science, Religion and science, Religion & science, Religious groups: social & cultural aspects, Natural selection; evolutionary biology; physiology; Darwin