Scientific Study of Religion

Computer Simulations for Studying Religion

Can computers study complex human phenomena? Wesley Wildman, professor of philosophy, theology, and ethics at the Boston University School of Theology, delves into this question.

The Academic Minute

How to Have Productive Disagreements About Politics and Religion

Research suggests people intuitively draw a distinction between what is known and what is believed. Recognizing the difference can help in ideological disagreements.

The Conversation

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

The cognitive similarities between institutional life and religion.

Science on Religion

How to “Grow” Shamanism in a Computer Model

An agent-based model (ABM) computer simulation that explores why shamanism in some societies is mostly male-dominated, while in other societies shamans are mostly female.

Science on Religion

The Human Brain Evolved to Believe in Gods

Humans are a believing bunch. And evolutionary anthropologists say that’s no miracle. The origins and ubiquity of religious beliefs can be explained by evolutionary theory.

The Crux, Discover

Synthesizing Empirical Findings and Theory in the Scientific Study of Religion

The SEFT Project is an initiative to survey the work that’s been done in the scientific study of religion thus far — to step back and take a bird’s-eye view of what the field has accomplished, where it’s come from, and where it might go next.

Science on Religion

When and Why Do People Become Atheists? New Study Uncovers Important Predictors

The less that parents “walk the walk” about religious beliefs, the more likely their children are to walk away.

Big Think

Computer Modeling Religion

Recent computer models suggest that religious beliefs are unlikely to disappear anytime soon. What else could computers tell us about this deeply human phenomenon?

Living Lab Radio, WCAI

Religion, Belief, and Social Connections

An interview with Jonathan Morgan and Connor Wood.

Sinai and Synapses

Should You Raise Your Kids Religious? Here’s What the Science Says

Does raising your child religious actually make them a better — or happier — person?

Quartz

Can Artificial Intelligence Predict Religious Violence?

The Modeling Religion Project already spawned several spin-off projects.

The Atlantic

Religion Is Uniquely Human, But Computer Simulations May Help Us Understand Religious Behavior

Can artificial intelligence accurately simulate people’s religious tendencies in the face of disaster and tragedy?

The Conversation

Cognitive Style, Religious Beliefs, and Individualism

People whose cognitive style is analytical or reflective are less likely to be religious than people who think more holistically or intuitively. Why? A new paper argues that the real factor is individualism.

Science on Religion

Did Human Sacrifice Help People Form Complex Societies?

The debate over how well ritual killings maintained social order.

The Atlantic

From Non-Religion to Unbelief? A Developing Field

The 21st century has witnessed growing academic and popular interest in a variety of categories which are related to ‘religion’ but conceptualized as ‘other’ — atheism, non-religion, secularity, religious indifference, and so on. Each of these categories can be conceptualized as aspects of the general category ‘unbelief.’

The Religious Studies Project

The Internet Has Made Americans More Casual About Religion

A recent study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion has found evidence that the more we use the Internet, the less likely we are to have a specific religious affiliation or to believe in and practice one religion exclusively.

Gizmodo

How the Brain’s Predictions Shape Religion

A cognitive process called predictive processing may be how the brain generates religious and spiritual experiences, according to a pair of neuroscientists.

Science on Religion

Supernatural Punishment and the Evolution of Cooperation

The key question the supernatural punishment hypothesis tries to answer is this: how could reliable human cooperation have evolved, since there’s always an incentive for individuals to cheat — that is, to benefit from others’ cooperation without cooperating in return?

Science on Religion

Would a Crumbling of Faith Really Make Humanity Less Moral?

If people figured out how to get along before religion, asks Frans de Waal, do we really need it?

Big Think

Atheists Should Embrace the Science of Religion

“Belief-ologists” are revealing how religion works. Belittling their work does nothing to further the secularists’ cause, but learning from it might.

New Scientist

A Scientist’s New Theory: Religion Was Key to Humans’ Social Evolution

In humans’ mysterious journey to become intelligent, socializing creatures like no other in the animal world, one innovation played an essential role: religion. That’s the theory that a preeminent evolutionary scientist is setting out to prove.

The Washington Post