The study assessed religiosity in 22 patients with mid-stage Parkinson's disease compared to 20 age-matched healthy controls through questionnaires. Patients scored lower than controls on measures of religiosity including the importance of religion as a life goal and scores on religiosity scales. Only measures of prefrontal cognitive function correlated with religiosity scores in patients, suggesting prefrontal dopaminergic networks may support motivational aspects of religiosity that are compromised in Parkinson's disease.
This document provides an introduction to a new theory that religion is best understood as systematic anthropomorphism - the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman things or events. The theory holds that we anthropomorphize because it is an effective perceptual strategy to interpret the world's ambiguities in terms of the most significant possibilities, which are usually human-related. While some anthropomorphic interpretations prove mistaken, the strategy is justified because correct identifications of actual humans provide great benefits. The book aims to show that religion constitutes a form of widespread and compelling anthropomorphism, and to explain why anthropomorphism occurs through analysis and evidence from fields like cognitive science. It argues existing theories of religion are inadequate because they do not identify or explain the underlying thought processes involved
The document discusses how evolutionary psychology and cognitive science can help explain the cultural power and universality of religion. It argues that current explanations for religion do not sufficiently explain why evolution did not select against costly and illogical religious beliefs and behaviors. The author proposes that religion arises from naturally selected cognitive structures and processes in the human mind/brain rather than serving a specific evolutionary function.
This document discusses several common explanations for the origins of religion and argues that they are incomplete. It suggests that religion can be better understood by examining how the human mind works. While people have diverse religious beliefs, the human mind is adapted to easily acquire and spread certain types of supernatural concepts. Explaining religion requires understanding both the variability of religious ideas and the underlying cognitive processes that make some ideas more learnable and transmissible than others.
The document provides an overview of major religions in Asia, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, Zen Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Shinto, Shamanism, and Animism. It discusses the origins, founders, sacred texts, deities, beliefs, and practices of each religion.
This chapter discusses the psychology of belief formation. It distinguishes between two types of beliefs: reflective beliefs, which are arrived at through conscious contemplation or instruction, and nonreflective beliefs, which come automatically without rumination. Nonreflective beliefs are produced by various "mental tools" like categorizers, describers, and facilitators that operate unconsciously in the mind. These tools form beliefs about objects, living things, other agents, and social situations. The chapter aims to understand belief formation in order to explain why people believe in God by exploring the relationship between nonreflective and reflective beliefs, including religious beliefs.
This document provides an abstract for a paper that describes a general model for the origins and evolution of primitive religious and philosophical worldviews from myths to stratified religious traditions over thousands of years. The model draws on textual research, neurobiology, and complex systems studies. It discusses how fields like philology, neurobiology, and complex systems research have been combined into a single cross-cultural theory to explain parallel developments in traditions from Europe, China, the Near East, South Asia, and Mesoamerica. Key points of the model include linking the origins of "correlative thought" to the roots of magic and religion through neurobiology, and using models of complex systems to simulate the evolution of parallel ideas in stratified textual traditions.
This document provides an overview of a theoretical paper that develops a cross-cultural model for understanding the evolution of correlative systems in premodern history. It argues that correlative thought, while intensely studied in Chinese history, was also prominent in other ancient civilizations. The paper proposes that correlative cosmologies developed from primitive magical-ritual systems and grew more abstract over time through exegetical processes operating on layered textual traditions. It presents a model linking the growth of religious and philosophical ideas to shifts in literate technologies and textual traditions, which can be implemented in computer simulations.
This document provides an abstract for a paper that describes a general model for the origins and evolution of primitive religious and philosophical worldviews from myths to stratified religious traditions over thousands of years. The model draws on textual research, neurobiology, and complex systems studies. It discusses how fields like philology, neurobiology, and complex systems research have been combined into a single cross-cultural theory to explain parallel developments in traditions from Europe, China, the Near East, South Asia, and Mesoamerica. Key points of the model include linking the origins of "correlative thought" to the roots of magic and religion through neurobiology, and using models of complex systems to simulate the evolution of parallel ideas in stratified textual traditions.
Jonathan Lanman presented a lecture on the evolutionary origins of atheistic thought. He argued that atheism, like religion, is influenced by human psychology and socio-cultural factors rather than solely being a rational response. Exposure to credible displays that demonstrate religious beliefs and practices can impact religiosity levels across generations. Strong atheism includes a moral view of religion as oppressive, while non-theism simply lacks supernatural beliefs. Levels of strong atheism seem to increase when religion gains social or political strength and threatens secular norms.
This document is a query form from a journal editor to an author requesting clarification on two statements in their article. The editor asks the author to clarify if two specific statements in the article are correct when submitting their changes to the production editor.
This document discusses whether chimpanzees have the cognitive abilities necessary to experience theistic concepts like belief in God or other non-physical agents. It argues that theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to others, is important for religious cognition in humans. The document examines behaviors in chimpanzees related to theory of mind abilities, such as their understanding of animacy, symbolic play, and concepts of death. It concludes that while chimpanzees may have basic theory of mind, differences in these domains suggest humans alone can fully represent the minds of non-natural agents required for religious experiences.
This study used fMRI to examine how assumptions about a speaker's charismatic abilities affect the brain response in secular and Christian participants receiving intercessory prayer. The researchers found that Christian participants deactivated regions of the frontal executive network, including the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, when they believed the speaker had healing abilities. This deactivation predicted how charismatic and God's presence the Christians rated the speaker. The findings suggest that recognizing a speaker's charismatic authority can inhibit the frontal executive network and facilitate their influence, similar to what occurs in hypnosis.
This document discusses the naturalness of religion and unnaturalness of science. It argues that while science studies nature, religion deals with supernatural concepts, cognitively religion is more natural than science. Religion stems from basic human cognitive tendencies like detecting agency and making causal explanations, while science requires extensive cultural learning. The document aims to clarify how religion and science differ as explanatory projects and why religion will persist despite scientific advances.
This document discusses people's folk psychology of souls and belief in an afterlife. It presents three key points:
1. Young children seem to naturally view the mind as continuing after death, even if they understand the body stops functioning. This default view decreases with age and exposure to cultural beliefs, suggesting it is not solely learned.
2. People have difficulty imagining a complete lack of consciousness and may attribute mental states like emotions and knowledge to the dead due to constraints in simulating what non-existence is like.
3. An organized cognitive system may have evolved to form illusory representations of psychological immortality, the intelligent design of the self, and meaning of life events, in response to social pressures in
This document discusses how religious beliefs and practices evolved through cognitive byproducts, learning heuristics, rituals, and group competition. It argues that religious concepts that violate intuitions about the natural world spread due to cognitive tendencies, rituals increase commitment through costly displays, and competition between groups connected religion to cooperation and conflict. Over time, religions assembled supernatural beliefs, devotions and rituals that promoted solidarity and cooperation at larger scales.
This document examines how three ancient religious traits - ancestor worship, shamanism, and beliefs in natural and animal spirits - may have contributed to the evolution of human cooperation. These traits emerged during the Upper Paleolithic period, coinciding with evidence of dramatic increases in human social cooperation. The paper argues that these early religious traits represented a "supernaturalizing" of social life by extending social monitoring and norms into the spiritual world. Believing that spirits were always watching may have helped reduce selfishness within groups and reinforce behavioral cooperation, allowing unprecedented levels of human cooperation to evolve.
Supernatural agents may have provided adaptive social information
This commentary discusses and critiques the target article by Atran and Norenzayan on religion's evolutionary landscape. The authors argue that while Atran and Norenzayan effectively combine insights from evolution and cognitive science, they overlook the possibility that attributing communication to supernatural agents served an adaptive function for ancestors. Specifically, interpreting natural events as messages from supernatural agents may have promoted adaptive behaviors by changing beliefs. The authors hypothesize an evolved psychological mechanism that allowed ancestors to interpret certain natural events as intentional communication from agents, which could have increased fitness over time. They argue it is premature to say religion served no independent evolutionary function.
This chapter introduces the concept of epidemiology of representations to analyze how religious beliefs spread through populations. Certain beliefs are more likely to spread than others based on how well they "match" human cognitive architecture and mental functions. Beliefs that invoke intuitive inferences about supernatural agents, such as attributing human-like mental states to gods, are cognitively cheap and thus more likely to spread widely. More abstract theological concepts are cognitively costly and less likely to spread unless they are transformed into simpler representations that trigger intuitive inferences and processing.
This document provides information about the 11th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. It outlines the schedule of events over three days, including keynote addresses, symposia, special sessions, poster sessions, and social events. Some highlights include a presidential symposium on evolution, brains, and hormones; a presidential address on the social self; award addresses; a keynote panel on genetics; and numerous opportunities for graduate students and early career researchers. The meeting aims to cover a diversity of topics within personality and social psychology through various programming elements.
This article discusses two experiments that show how evaluations of science and religion can be automatically opposed. The first experiment found that describing scientific theories as weak explanations decreased evaluations of science but increased evaluations of God. The second experiment found that using God as an explanation increased evaluations of God but decreased evaluations of science. These findings suggest that science and religion compete as ultimate explanations, and this competition can create an automatic opposition in how they are evaluated.
The document summarizes research showing that when personal or external sources of control are threatened, religious belief can serve as a compensatory source of control. Specifically:
1) Manipulations that lower personal control increase beliefs in an external controlling God or supernatural force as a way to regain a sense of order.
2) This effect is mediated by increased feelings of anxiety from a lack of control. Religious belief is heightened most when it emphasizes an external entity's control.
3) Threats to personal, external, or different sources of control can increase alternative sources of personal or external control as substitutable means of regaining a sense of order.
This document is an introduction and preface to Abraham Maslow's book "Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences" which examines core religious or transcendent experiences. The introduction provides background on increasing communication between religions and sciences. Maslow believes these experiences are valid psychological events rather than direct revelations from God. The preface warns that organized religions can become enemies of religious experience by becoming overly behavioral or legalistic. It also warns that mystics can become selfish in only seeking peak experiences or escalating behaviors to trigger them. Overall, the document introduces Maslow's perspective on integrating religious experience and science.
How to attach file using upload button Odoo 18Celine George
Ìý
In this slide, we’ll discuss on how to attach file using upload button Odoo 18. Odoo features a dedicated model, 'ir.attachments,' designed for storing attachments submitted by end users. We can see the process of utilizing the 'ir.attachments' model to enable file uploads through web forms in this slide.
This document provides an abstract for a paper that describes a general model for the origins and evolution of primitive religious and philosophical worldviews from myths to stratified religious traditions over thousands of years. The model draws on textual research, neurobiology, and complex systems studies. It discusses how fields like philology, neurobiology, and complex systems research have been combined into a single cross-cultural theory to explain parallel developments in traditions from Europe, China, the Near East, South Asia, and Mesoamerica. Key points of the model include linking the origins of "correlative thought" to the roots of magic and religion through neurobiology, and using models of complex systems to simulate the evolution of parallel ideas in stratified textual traditions.
Jonathan Lanman presented a lecture on the evolutionary origins of atheistic thought. He argued that atheism, like religion, is influenced by human psychology and socio-cultural factors rather than solely being a rational response. Exposure to credible displays that demonstrate religious beliefs and practices can impact religiosity levels across generations. Strong atheism includes a moral view of religion as oppressive, while non-theism simply lacks supernatural beliefs. Levels of strong atheism seem to increase when religion gains social or political strength and threatens secular norms.
This document is a query form from a journal editor to an author requesting clarification on two statements in their article. The editor asks the author to clarify if two specific statements in the article are correct when submitting their changes to the production editor.
This document discusses whether chimpanzees have the cognitive abilities necessary to experience theistic concepts like belief in God or other non-physical agents. It argues that theory of mind, the ability to attribute mental states to others, is important for religious cognition in humans. The document examines behaviors in chimpanzees related to theory of mind abilities, such as their understanding of animacy, symbolic play, and concepts of death. It concludes that while chimpanzees may have basic theory of mind, differences in these domains suggest humans alone can fully represent the minds of non-natural agents required for religious experiences.
This study used fMRI to examine how assumptions about a speaker's charismatic abilities affect the brain response in secular and Christian participants receiving intercessory prayer. The researchers found that Christian participants deactivated regions of the frontal executive network, including the medial and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, when they believed the speaker had healing abilities. This deactivation predicted how charismatic and God's presence the Christians rated the speaker. The findings suggest that recognizing a speaker's charismatic authority can inhibit the frontal executive network and facilitate their influence, similar to what occurs in hypnosis.
This document discusses the naturalness of religion and unnaturalness of science. It argues that while science studies nature, religion deals with supernatural concepts, cognitively religion is more natural than science. Religion stems from basic human cognitive tendencies like detecting agency and making causal explanations, while science requires extensive cultural learning. The document aims to clarify how religion and science differ as explanatory projects and why religion will persist despite scientific advances.
This document discusses people's folk psychology of souls and belief in an afterlife. It presents three key points:
1. Young children seem to naturally view the mind as continuing after death, even if they understand the body stops functioning. This default view decreases with age and exposure to cultural beliefs, suggesting it is not solely learned.
2. People have difficulty imagining a complete lack of consciousness and may attribute mental states like emotions and knowledge to the dead due to constraints in simulating what non-existence is like.
3. An organized cognitive system may have evolved to form illusory representations of psychological immortality, the intelligent design of the self, and meaning of life events, in response to social pressures in
This document discusses how religious beliefs and practices evolved through cognitive byproducts, learning heuristics, rituals, and group competition. It argues that religious concepts that violate intuitions about the natural world spread due to cognitive tendencies, rituals increase commitment through costly displays, and competition between groups connected religion to cooperation and conflict. Over time, religions assembled supernatural beliefs, devotions and rituals that promoted solidarity and cooperation at larger scales.
This document examines how three ancient religious traits - ancestor worship, shamanism, and beliefs in natural and animal spirits - may have contributed to the evolution of human cooperation. These traits emerged during the Upper Paleolithic period, coinciding with evidence of dramatic increases in human social cooperation. The paper argues that these early religious traits represented a "supernaturalizing" of social life by extending social monitoring and norms into the spiritual world. Believing that spirits were always watching may have helped reduce selfishness within groups and reinforce behavioral cooperation, allowing unprecedented levels of human cooperation to evolve.
Supernatural agents may have provided adaptive social information
This commentary discusses and critiques the target article by Atran and Norenzayan on religion's evolutionary landscape. The authors argue that while Atran and Norenzayan effectively combine insights from evolution and cognitive science, they overlook the possibility that attributing communication to supernatural agents served an adaptive function for ancestors. Specifically, interpreting natural events as messages from supernatural agents may have promoted adaptive behaviors by changing beliefs. The authors hypothesize an evolved psychological mechanism that allowed ancestors to interpret certain natural events as intentional communication from agents, which could have increased fitness over time. They argue it is premature to say religion served no independent evolutionary function.
This chapter introduces the concept of epidemiology of representations to analyze how religious beliefs spread through populations. Certain beliefs are more likely to spread than others based on how well they "match" human cognitive architecture and mental functions. Beliefs that invoke intuitive inferences about supernatural agents, such as attributing human-like mental states to gods, are cognitively cheap and thus more likely to spread widely. More abstract theological concepts are cognitively costly and less likely to spread unless they are transformed into simpler representations that trigger intuitive inferences and processing.
This document provides information about the 11th Annual Meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. It outlines the schedule of events over three days, including keynote addresses, symposia, special sessions, poster sessions, and social events. Some highlights include a presidential symposium on evolution, brains, and hormones; a presidential address on the social self; award addresses; a keynote panel on genetics; and numerous opportunities for graduate students and early career researchers. The meeting aims to cover a diversity of topics within personality and social psychology through various programming elements.
This article discusses two experiments that show how evaluations of science and religion can be automatically opposed. The first experiment found that describing scientific theories as weak explanations decreased evaluations of science but increased evaluations of God. The second experiment found that using God as an explanation increased evaluations of God but decreased evaluations of science. These findings suggest that science and religion compete as ultimate explanations, and this competition can create an automatic opposition in how they are evaluated.
The document summarizes research showing that when personal or external sources of control are threatened, religious belief can serve as a compensatory source of control. Specifically:
1) Manipulations that lower personal control increase beliefs in an external controlling God or supernatural force as a way to regain a sense of order.
2) This effect is mediated by increased feelings of anxiety from a lack of control. Religious belief is heightened most when it emphasizes an external entity's control.
3) Threats to personal, external, or different sources of control can increase alternative sources of personal or external control as substitutable means of regaining a sense of order.
This document is an introduction and preface to Abraham Maslow's book "Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences" which examines core religious or transcendent experiences. The introduction provides background on increasing communication between religions and sciences. Maslow believes these experiences are valid psychological events rather than direct revelations from God. The preface warns that organized religions can become enemies of religious experience by becoming overly behavioral or legalistic. It also warns that mystics can become selfish in only seeking peak experiences or escalating behaviors to trigger them. Overall, the document introduces Maslow's perspective on integrating religious experience and science.
How to attach file using upload button Odoo 18Celine George
Ìý
In this slide, we’ll discuss on how to attach file using upload button Odoo 18. Odoo features a dedicated model, 'ir.attachments,' designed for storing attachments submitted by end users. We can see the process of utilizing the 'ir.attachments' model to enable file uploads through web forms in this slide.
Mate, a short story by Kate Grenvile.pptxLiny Jenifer
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A powerpoint presentation on the short story Mate by Kate Greenville. This presentation provides information on Kate Greenville, a character list, plot summary and critical analysis of the short story.
The Constitution, Government and Law making bodies .saanidhyapatel09
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This PowerPoint presentation provides an insightful overview of the Constitution, covering its key principles, features, and significance. It explains the fundamental rights, duties, structure of government, and the importance of constitutional law in governance. Ideal for students, educators, and anyone interested in understanding the foundation of a nation’s legal framework.
Research & Research Methods: Basic Concepts and Types.pptxDr. Sarita Anand
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This ppt has been made for the students pursuing PG in social science and humanities like M.Ed., M.A. (Education), Ph.D. Scholars. It will be also beneficial for the teachers and other faculty members interested in research and teaching research concepts.
How to Configure Flexible Working Schedule in Odoo 18 EmployeeCeline George
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In this slide, we’ll discuss on how to configure flexible working schedule in Odoo 18 Employee module. In Odoo 18, the Employee module offers powerful tools to configure and manage flexible working schedules tailored to your organization's needs.
How to Setup WhatsApp in Odoo 17 - Odoo ºÝºÝߣsCeline George
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Integrate WhatsApp into Odoo using the WhatsApp Business API or third-party modules to enhance communication. This integration enables automated messaging and customer interaction management within Odoo 17.
Blind spots in AI and Formulation Science, IFPAC 2025.pdfAjaz Hussain
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The intersection of AI and pharmaceutical formulation science highlights significant blind spots—systemic gaps in pharmaceutical development, regulatory oversight, quality assurance, and the ethical use of AI—that could jeopardize patient safety and undermine public trust. To move forward effectively, we must address these normalized blind spots, which may arise from outdated assumptions, errors, gaps in previous knowledge, and biases in language or regulatory inertia. This is essential to ensure that AI and formulation science are developed as tools for patient-centered and ethical healthcare.
APM event hosted by the South Wales and West of England Network (SWWE Network)
Speaker: Aalok Sonawala
The SWWE Regional Network were very pleased to welcome Aalok Sonawala, Head of PMO, National Programmes, Rider Levett Bucknall on 26 February, to BAWA for our first face to face event of 2025. Aalok is a member of APM’s Thames Valley Regional Network and also speaks to members of APM’s PMO Interest Network, which aims to facilitate collaboration and learning, offer unbiased advice and guidance.
Tonight, Aalok planned to discuss the importance of a PMO within project-based organisations, the different types of PMO and their key elements, PMO governance and centres of excellence.
PMO’s within an organisation can be centralised, hub and spoke with a central PMO with satellite PMOs globally, or embedded within projects. The appropriate structure will be determined by the specific business needs of the organisation. The PMO sits above PM delivery and the supply chain delivery teams.
For further information about the event please click here.