Overlapping Mental Magisteria: Implications of Experimental Psychology for a Theory of Religious Belief as Misattribution
Subjective religious and spiritual experiences (rs) are believed by many to be reliable indicators of external agency. A set of related phenomena are used to support this view that typically involve intuitions or attributions of mental interaction or experiences with rs agents. The present review in...
| Published in: | Method & theory in the study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Religion
/ Faith
/ Cognition
/ Attribution
/ Cognitive science
/ Religious psychology
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| RelBib Classification: | AA Study of religion AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AE Psychology of religion |
| Further subjects: | B
Religious Belief
religious cognition
attribution
confabulation
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| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Subjective religious and spiritual experiences (rs) are believed by many to be reliable indicators of external agency. A set of related phenomena are used to support this view that typically involve intuitions or attributions of mental interaction or experiences with rs agents. The present review integrates empirical findings from the fields of the Cognitive Sciences of Religion, experimental social psychology, and neuropsychology to support the position that individuals misattribute rs thoughts and experiences. That is, these experiences are believed to be veridical indicators of external agency when in fact they are subject to materialistic causal influences. This tendency varies as a function of individual differences and contextual conditions. rs phenomena can be artificially generated in a way that is phenomenologically indistinguishable from spontaneous experiences. Intuitions of external agency are rationalized and confabulated, leaving the mistaken impression of validation by analytic processes. The theoretical and philosophical implications of findings are discussed. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Contains: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341393 |