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religion and reason as natural phenomena
Browsing All Posts filed under »sociology«
Sociology, secularisation and selection
I’m currently reading Secularization by Steve Bruce. The book is a most fascinating data-driven look at the phenomenon of secularisation in modern societies, especially Europe. Bruce is a long-time collaborator of David Voas, whose work on secularisation I mentioned earlier and who directed me to Bruce’s previous book with the unbeatable title – God is […]
Secularisation in Brno
December 26, 2010
My usual after-conference report has been somewhat delayed by a little thing called Christmas. The turkey, cake and other comestibles are now where they should be, however: So there is a chance to write a few words about the meeting in Brno. The conference’s title was almost as long as the conference itself – Twenty […]
Videos from the Religious Ritual, Culture and Cognition conference
August 1, 2010
Back in May 2008 took place a conference that I dearly wish I had attended, the topic of it being very much central to my own work, i.e. cognitive approaches to religious and magical ritual. The conference was organised by Armin Geertz and Jesper Sorensen and took place at the Religion, Cognition and Culture research […]
Abstract for ISORECEA
July 9, 2010
My Czech colleague, Ales Chalupa, who organised the very valuable meeting on cognitive science of religion I attended last year is co-organising another, much bigger meeting this year. The International Study of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe Association conference will take place in December of this year and is to have a section devoted […]
Abstract for talk in Aarhus
May 10, 2010
On May 21st I will be giving a talk in Aarhus to the Religion, Cognition and Culture people in Aarhus. Here is the abstract: Explaining the magic/religion distinction using a dual inheritance model The dual inheritance model of religion seeks to explain it as based upon cognitive byproducts that have been co-opted for prosocial functions. […]
ESF funding application
May 10, 2010
It’s another of those cases where I wish I were more superstitious. I have submitted an application to the European Science Foundation for funding to organise a workshop on dual inheritance models of religion and now have to wait till November to find out if my application was successful. The attraction to cross my fingers […]
Review of dual-inheritance models
March 3, 2010
Everyone understands the feeling of excitement that a child feels upon seeing presents under the Christmas tree. Far fewer can understand that such a feeling can be caused by finding out that a particular academic article has been published. Still, I hope that some can understand or even share my joy at finding out that […]
Atheism as the out-group
September 3, 2009
On the Epiphenom blog, Tom Rees has an interesting discussion of a study concerning the way atheists are distrusted in the US. He ties it to a claim I made a little while ago about religion being used as a marker of the in-group/out-group distinction. He thinks the evidence in the study points against it […]
Fixation in Teorema
June 12, 2009
The long version of “Fixation of superstitious beliefs” should be coming out in Teorema relatively soon. It develops the ideas contained in the short version that I put on this blog a while ago. I’m linking to a draft version of the long article in pdf format: My aim in this paper is to sketch […]
Pigliucci on Haidt
September 15, 2008
In my last post, written a few days ago, I mentioned an interesting article on the reasons why people vote Republican – something that certainly astounds me despite my knowledge of the psychological research on human irrationality. In the meanwhile, Massimo Pigliucci has written at length on this article, arguing that the author fails to […]
Just Another Deisidaimon 
February 6, 2011
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