Stop treating 'religion' as one thing. Cognitive Science of Religion argues that common religious features—rituals, supernatural agents, moral norms—arise from ordinary, domain‑specific mental systems (e.g., agency detection, teleology, theory of mind, social signaling). This bottom‑up 'fractionating' approach explains why diverse cultures independently converge on religious forms.
— It shifts debates about belief, culture, and policy from indoctrination or mere tradition to universal cognitive architecture, clarifying what can and cannot be engineered by education or politics.
Razib Khan
2025.10.10
90% relevant
The author explicitly invokes a cognitive‑evolutionary account (via Manvir Singh) to explain why diverse societies converge on shamanic rites and spirit‑world beliefs, and even maps those intuitions onto monotheistic texts—an exemplary case of religion emerging from domain‑specific mental systems.
Steve Paulson
2025.10.07
70% relevant
Singh argues shamanism engages unseen agents, exorcism, healing, prophecy, and trance states—features that map onto cognitive‑science‑of‑religion modules (agency detection, social signaling, ritual), aligning with the idea that religious forms emerge from domain‑specific mental systems.
Seeds of Science
2025.08.13
100% relevant
The article explicitly advocates a 'bottom‑up, fractionating approach' within CSR and promises 13 core mechanisms that recurrently generate religious belief and behavior.
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