Science & the Big Questions

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Why Rituals Are Important Survival Tools During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Topics: Bonding Cristine Legare Ritual

Featured

Why Do Humans Embrace Rituals? Disease and Danger May Be at the Root of the Behaviors

Topics: Cristine Legare Cultural Evolution Ritual

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How God Works

Topics: Compassion Faith Resilience Ritual Spirituality

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Why Do We Miss the Rituals Put On Hold By the COVID-19 Pandemic?

Topics: Bonding Cooperation Cristine Legare Emotion Group Identity Ritual

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A Look Back Into Humanity’s Collective History, Through Religious Rituals and Practices

Topics: Religious Groups Ritual

Is Your Society Good for (Biological) Fitness?

Remember that there are two major biological objectives in life, survival and reproduction.

Science on Religion

Topics: Cultural Evolution Evolution of Religion Ritual Scientific Study of Religion

Religions as Complex Adaptive Systems

Looking at religions as a complex adaptive systems helps make sense of both their persistent cross-cultural similarities and their widely varying differences.

Science on Religion

Topics: Cooperation Evolution of Religion Religious Groups Ritual Scientific Study of Religion

How the Sound of Religion Has Changed in the Pandemic

A team of scholars have been documenting the sound of worship for six years. Since the lockdown, they have heard a different form of religious expression.

The Conversation

Topics: Religious Change Religious Groups Ritual

Religious Experience and Homo Duplex

Where does religious experience come from? In a new article, Connor Wood combines Durkheim’s concept of Homo Duplex, Victor Turner’s concept of antistructure, and a healthy dose of contemporary social cognitive science to offer a new approach to this question.

Science on Religion

Topics: Ritual Scientific Study of Religion Social Cognition

The Necessity of Awe

In awe we hold fast to nature’s strangeness and open up to the unknown. No wonder it’s central to the scientific imagination.

Aeon

Topics: Awe Emotion Ritual Transformation

Animal Grief Shows We Aren’t Meant to Die Alone

The coronavirus pandemic is robbing some people of a chance to come together to mourn: a practice deeply embedded in many animal species.

SAPIENS

Topics: Animal Studies Barbara King Death Emotion Ritual

Why People Need Rituals, Especially in Times of Uncertainty

As the coronavirus spreads and life comes to a standstill, people are coming up with a host of rituals to maintain a sense of order and human connection.

The Conversation

Topics: Belonging Bonding Resilience Ritual

Masks Don’t Help, But Tossing Salt Over the Shoulder? Why People Want to Believe

Research shows that ‘magical thinking’ offers comfort during a crisis.

The Washington Post

Topics: Belief Ritual

Extreme Rituals and Health: A Surprising Match

Participation in a bloody, dangerous, outrageously grueling religious ritual — at the height of the tropical summer, no less — somehow leads to more positive ratings on a measure that predicts all-around health with impressive accuracy.

Science on Religion

Topics: Coping Resilience Ritual Scientific Study of Religion

Being Copycats Might Be Key to Being Human

A quirk of psychology that affects the way people learn from others may have helped unlock the complicated technologies and rituals that human culture hinges on.

The Conversation

Topics: Cultural Evolution Ritual Social Learning

The Psychological and Social Importance of Postures During Worship

Postures and gestures have been selected by religions over time to promote the kinds of individual and collective feelings and attitudes that religions value.

Character & Context, Society for Personality and Social Psychology

Topics: Embodied Cognition Religious Groups Ritual

How Hearts Align in a Muslim Ritual

An important Sufi ritual brings participants together in a shared experience of trance and movement that actually synchronizes their heartbeats.

SAPIENS

Topics: Ritual

The Dancing Species: How Moving Together in Time Helped Make Us Human

Dancing is a human universal, but why?

Aeon

Topics: Empathy Human Evolution Ritual

Do Humans Have a ‘Religion Instinct’?

BBC Future

Topics: Andrew Newberg Belief Bonding Evolution of Religion Morality Religiosity Ritual Scientific Study of Religion Spirituality

Is Ritual a Tool for Resilience?

The relationship between religion, ritual, and cultural resilience.

Science on Religion

Topics: Nature Religiosity Resilience Ritual Scientific Study of Religion

How and Why Did Religion Evolve?

BBC Future

Topics: Animal Studies Bonding Emotion Empathy Evolution of Religion Ritual Scientific Study of Religion

Following Conflict, a Turn to the Divine

Study shows that many who experience the trauma of war become increasingly religious.

The Harvard Gazette

Topics: Cooperation Group Conflict Religiosity Religious Groups Ritual Violence

What Science Can Learn From Religion

Hostility toward spiritual traditions may be hampering empirical inquiry.

The New York Times

Topics: David DeSteno Meditation Models of Science & Religion Ritual Science & Religion Dialogue Spirituality

War and Religion

Survey data from Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Tajikistan shows that people with greater exposure to war were more likely to participate in Christian or Muslim religious groups and rituals.

CIFAR

Topics: Religiosity Religious Groups Ritual Violence

Mysterious People of North America’s First Native City Welcomed Immigrants, Scientists Discover

Cahokia, with its 30m Monk’s Mound pyramid, was a cultural hub for 250 years — before its peoples vanished.

Newsweek

Topics: Religious Change Ritual Spirituality

Gods Are Everywhere Because It’s Hard to Bargain With Them

The cognitive similarities between institutional life and religion.

Science on Religion

Topics: Cognition Cultural Evolution Evolution of Religion Imagination Religiosity Ritual Scientific Study of Religion