Abstract
Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) is still a rather young discipline. Depending on what one deems to be the first paper or book in the field, the discipline is now almost forty or almost thirty years old. Philosophical and theological discussion on CSR started in the late 2000s. From its onset, the main focus has been the (potential) epistemic consequences of CSR, and this focus is dominant even today. Some of those involved in the debate discussed the relevance of CSR for further issues in philosophy of religion, and other have examined how CSR weighs in on various theological questions. Finally, a small number of philosophers offered criticisms or support for various CSR-theories. In this chapter, we give an overview of the debates so far and provide an outline of the book.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Reformed Epistemology is an influential line of thought in current religious epistemology. It was first advanced in a collection of papers edited by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff (Plantinga and Wolterstorff 1983). Its central claim is that religious belief can be rational without even if it is not based on arguments.
- 2.
The term ‘epistemic luck’ refers to accidental or coincidental factors that lead a subject to hold true beliefs. The term became wide-spread in virtue of Duncan Pritchard’s use of the phrase (Pritchard 2005). Most epistemologists agree that true beliefs that are the result of epistemic luck do not amount to knowledge.
- 3.
Defenders of religious non-cognitivism claim that religious claims do not have truth-value. Instead they are concerned with the sphere of human conduct and experience. Among the more influential defenders of religious non-cognitivism are D.Z. Philips and Don Cupitt.
- 4.
The Death-of-God Theology was a movement in Christian theology in the 1950s and 1960s. It claimed that either God had ceased to exist or God’s existence could no longer be experienced. Its adherents tried to formulate radically non-transcendent ways of reading the gospel in what came to be called ‘Christian atheism’; for a brief critical introduction, see e.g. (Miller and Grenz 1998: 79–86).
- 5.
The quote is from the handout of a paper given at our university (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) by the American historian and psychologist of religion Robert C. Fuller entitled “Religion is Nonsense. Cognitive Science and the Biological Substrates of Religion” (March 19, 2018).
- 6.
This publication was made possible through the support of a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
References
Baker-Hytch, Max. 2014. Religious diversity and epistemic luck. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 76: 171–191.
Barrett, Justin L. 2007. Is the spell really broken? Biopsychological explanations of religion and theistic belief. Theology and Science 5: 57–72.
———. 2012. Towards a cognitive science of Christianity. In The Blackwell companion to science and Christianity, ed. J.B. Stump and Alan G. Padgett. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Barrett, Justin L., and Ian M. Church. 2013. Should CSR give Atheists epistemic assurance? On Beer-goggles, BFFs, and skepticism regarding religious belief. The Monist 96: 311–324.
Braddock, Matthew. 2016. Debunking arguments and the cognitive science of religion. Theology and Science 14: 268–287.
Clark, Kelly James, and Justin L. Barrett. 2010. Reformed epistemology and the cognitive science of religion. Faith and Philosophy 27: 174.
———. 2011. Reidian religious epistemology and the cognitive science of religion. Journal of the American academy of religion.: 1–37.
Clark, Kelly James, and Dani Rabinowitz. 2011. Knowledge and the objection to religious belief from cognitive science. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 3: 67–81.
Clark, Kelly James, and Justin T. Winslett. 2011. The evolutionary psychology of Chinese religion: Pre-Qin high gods as punishers and rewarders. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79: 928–960.
Dawkins, Richard. 2007. The God delusion. London: Black Swan.
De Cruz, Helen. 2014. Cognitive science of religion and the study of theological concepts. Topoi 33: 487–497.
De Cruz, Helen, and Johan De Smedt. 2012. Reformed and evolutionary epistemology and the noetic effects of sin. International Journal Philosophy Religion 74: 49–66.
———. 2015. A natural history of natural theology. In The cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion. Cambridge/London: MIT Press.
Dennett, Daniel Clement. 2006. Breaking the spell: Religion as a natural phenomenon. New York: Penguin.
Draper, Paul, and Ryan Nichols. 2013. Diagnosing bias in philosophy of religion. The Monist 96: 420–446.
Green, Adam. 2013. Cognitive science and the natural knowledge of God. The Monist 96: 399–419.
Goodnick, Liz. 2016. A De Jure criticism of theism. Open Theology 2(1).
Guthrie, Stewart. 1980. A cognitive theory of religion. Current Anthropology 21: 181–203.
Horst, Steven. 2013. Notions of intuition in cognitive science of religion. The Monist 96(3): 377–398.
Jones, James W. 2016. Can science explain religion? The cognitive science debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jong, Jonathan, Christopher Kavanagh, and Aku Visala. 2015. Born idolaters: The limits of the philosophical implications of the cognitive science of religion. Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 57: 244–266.
Lawson, E. Thomas, and Robert N. McCauley. 1990. Rethinking religion: Connecting cognition and culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Leech, David, and Aku Visala. 2011a. The cognitive science of religion: A modified theist response. Religious Studies 47: 301–316.
———. 2011b. The cognitive science of religion: Implications for theism? Zygon 46: 47–65.
———. 2014. The cognitive science of religion and theism again: A reply to Leo Näreaho. Religious Studies 50: 67–76.
Lim, Daniel. 2016. Cognitive science of religion and folk theistic belief. Zygon 51: 949–965.
McCauley, Robert N. 2011. Why religion is natural and science is not. New York: Oxford University Press.
Miller, Ed LeRoy, and Stanley James Grenz. 1998. Fortress introduction to contemporary theologies. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
Murray, Michael J. 2008. Four arguments that the cognitive psychology of religion undermines the justification of religious belief. In The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques, ed. J. Bulbulia et al. Santa Margarita: Collins Foundation Press.
———. 2009. Scientific explanations of religion and the justification of religious belief. In The believing primate, ed. J. Schloss and M.J. Murray. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murray, Michael J., and Lyn Moore. 2009. Costly signaling and the origin of religion. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9: 225–245.
Näreaho, Leo. 2008. The cognitive science of religion: Philosophical observations. Religious Studies 44: 83–98.
———. 2014. Cognitive science of religion and theism: How can they be compatible? Religious Studies 50: 51–66.
Nikkel, David H. 2015. The Daulistic, discarnate picture that haunts the cognitive science of religion. Zygon 50: 621–646.
Nola, Robert. 2013. Do naturalistic explanations of religious beliefs debunk religion? In A new science of religion, ed. Gregory W. Dawes and James Maclaurin. New York/London: Routledge.
Oviedo, Lluis. 2008. Is a complete biocognitive account of religion feasible? Zygon 43: 103–126.
Peterson, Michael, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger. 2013. Reason & religious belief. An introduction to the philosophy of religion. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Pres.
Plantinga, Alvin. 2011. Where the conflict really lies: Science, religion, and naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Plantinga, Alvin, and Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, eds. 1983. Faith and rationality: Reason and belief in God. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Pritchard, Duncan. 2005. Epistemic luck. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Sagar, Richard Jonathan. 2011. The cognitive science of religion/atheism and its impact on Plantinga’s reformed epistemology. (Mphil thesis University of Birmingham).
Schloss, Jeffrey P., and Michael J. Murray. 2011. Evolutionary accounts of belief in supernatural punishment: A critical review. Religion, Brain & Behavior 1: 46–99.
Shults, F. Leron. 2014. Theology after the birth of god: Atheist conceptions in cognition and culture. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Smedes, Taede. 2014. Emil Brunner revisited: On the cognitive science of religion, the Imago Dei, and revelation. Zygon 49: 190–207.
Teehan, John. 2010. In the name of God: The evolutionary origins of religious ethics and violence. Wiley Online Library.
Thurow, J.C. 2013. Does cognitive science show belief in god to be irrational? The epistemic consequences of the cognitive science of religion. International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion 74: 77–98.
Vainio, Olli-Pekka. 2016. What does theology have to do with religion? Dual-process accounts, cognitive science of religion and a curious blind spot in contemporary theorizing. Open Theology 2: 106–112.
Van den Brink, Gijsbert. Forthcoming. Reformed theology and evolutionary theory. Grand Rapids Michigan: Eerdmans.
Van Eyghen, Hans. Forthcoming. Is supernatural belief unreliably formed? International Journal for Philosophy of Religion.
Van Leeuwen, Neil. 2017. Two paradigms for religious representation: The physicist and the playground (A reply to Levy). Cognition 164: 206–211.
Van Slyke, James A. 2011. The cognitive science of religion. Farnham: Ashgate.
Visala, Aku. 2011. Naturalism, theism and the cognitive study of religion: Religion explained? Farnham: Ashgate.
Walker, Ruth. 2006. Rescuing religious non-realism from Cupitt. The Heythrop Journal 47: 426–440.
Wilkins, John S., and Paul E. Griffiths. 2013. Evolutionary debunking arguments in three domains. In A new science of religion, ed. Gregory W. Dawes and James Maclaurin. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
van Eyghen, H., Peels, R., van den Brink, G. (2018). The Cognitive Science of Religion, Philosophy and Theology: A Survey of the Issues. In: van Eyghen, H., Peels, R., van den Brink, G. (eds) New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion. New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion , vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90239-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90239-5_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90238-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90239-5
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)