The Naturalness of Religious Ideas - A Cognitive Theory of Religion

The main theme of this treatise is that important aspects of religious representation are constrained by the human mind. The author uses experimental results from developmental psychology to explain why certain religious representations are acquired and stored in the brain. "An excellent book, written in a distinctly new, different style. . . . Boyer has substantive claims to make about epistemology."—Tanya Luhrmann, University of California, San Diego Why do people have religious ideas? And why thosereligious ideas? The main theme of Pascal Boyer's work is that important aspects of religious representations are constrained by universal properties of the human mind-brain. Experimental results from developmental psychology, he says, can explain why certain religious representations are more likely to be acquired, stored, and transmitted by human minds. Considering these universal constraints, Boyer proposes an exciting new answer to the question of why similar religious representations are found in so many different cultures. His work will be widely discussed by cultural anthropologists, psychologists, and students of religion, history, and philosophy.