Religion Devolving? When Shared Ritual Engagement with Supernatural Agents Becomes Maladaptive

This article highlights several of the valuable contributions in Religion Evolving by Benjamin Purzycki and Richard Sosis (2022) and offers some material and methodological reflections that are intended to complement their efforts. Their book offers a clear and useful operationalization of religion,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Main Author: Shults, Fount LeRon 1965- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Equinox Publ. 2023
In: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Further subjects:B by-product
B maladaptation
B religion as by-product
B Religion
B Naturalism
B Secularism
B Adaptation
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
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Summary:This article highlights several of the valuable contributions in Religion Evolving by Benjamin Purzycki and Richard Sosis (2022) and offers some material and methodological reflections that are intended to complement their efforts. Their book offers a clear and useful operationalization of religion, emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to the phenomena in question, and makes great strides in overcoming the polarizing debate between proponents of the "by-product" and "adaptationist" camps in the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion. The bulk of the current article argues for the importance of building on their efforts by also attending to the conditions under which - and the mechanisms by which - religion can become "maladaptive" in contemporary contexts.
ISSN:2049-7563
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal for the cognitive science of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jcsr.23578