Towards a neuropsychology of religion:


	Towards a neuropsychology of religion:

wildcat

10-24-2008 10:54 AM

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tags:

neuropsychology, religion

wildcat says:

'Doctrinal' rituals help create semantic memories of key concepts and emotional response through associative learning, while 'imagistic' rituals help create episodic memories of specific situations that may involve altered states of consciousness and the experience of other realities.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/cedbd388-26be-4d27-ae69-cd582498ed0b/B8617663-0DC9-4B6F-994A-B7C9207B2461/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/towards_a_neuropsych.html" href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/towards_a_neuropsych.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.mindhacks.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/towards_a_neuropsych.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.mindhacks.com/img/7DDC85C7-63B2-4E09-B8EE-7076AC1E2E5C" alt="" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/towards_a_neuropsych.html"><P>This week's <I>Nature</I> has a fascinating <A href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v455/n7216/full/4551038a.html" linkindex="5">essay</A> by anthropologist Pascal Boyer discussing the quirks of spiritual belief and how they may result from the evolution of our mind and brain.</p> <P>Boyer is best known for his <A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_Explained" linkindex="6">book</A> <I>Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought</I> where he argued that religion can be understood as where the cognitive abilities we've developed through evolution are applied to things like group identity, ritual, or the explanation of otherwise mysterious things, such as weather or disease.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2008/10/towards_a_neuropsych.html">Essentially, Boyer argues that there are cognitive restraints on religious practice and belief, which he illustrates by pointing out some interesting inconsistencies in our intuitive ideas about spiritual agents. According to Boyer, this suggests that our mental capacities define what are supposed to be all-powerful or all-knowing entities.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B8617663-0DC9-4B6F-994A-B7C9207B2461/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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