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Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of...
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Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 17994

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Carles Salazar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Art and Social History, University of Lleida, 25003 Lleida, Spain
Interests: religion; evolution; cognition and science; altruism; kinship; consciousness

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue ‘Meaning, mind and evolution: new perspectives in the study of religion’. This Special Issue aims to focus on the ways in which the cognitive and evolutionary approach to the study of religion can deal with issues of culture and meaning in religious belief, behavior and experience.

We believe that the highly successful approach to the study of religion known as the cognitive and evolutionary approach has unduly neglected the meaningful component of religious worldviews, which has been the traditional object of analysis of the social sciences and the humanities. We do not think that there is any incompatibility between this approach and the novel perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary sciences. On the contrary, we believe that both lines of enquiry are needed to obtain a complete scientific explanation of human religiosity. Still, very few researchers have actually tackled this inherently cross-disciplinary issue of religious cultural meaning, which also considers the insights provided by the cognitive and evolutionary approach. This is the void that we would like to fill with this Special Issue.

Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Cognitive and evolutionary foundations of religious symbolism.
  • Non-propositional meaning in religious rituals.
  • The cultural evolution of religious beliefs and behavior.
  • Interpretation and explanation of religious cultural systems.
  • Ethnography, historiography and experimental methods in the study of religion.
  • Religion and embodied, extended and embedded cognition.
  • The neural structures of religious meaning and experience.
  • Adaptive/maladaptive nature of religious morality.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Carles Salazar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • cognition
  • culture
  • evolution
  • meaning
  • symbolism
  • religious experience
  • ritual

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 405 KiB  
Article
Religious Hate Propaganda: Dangerous Accusations and the Meaning of Religious Persecution in Light of the Cognitive Science of Religion
by Jordan Kiper
Religions 2023, 14(2), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020185 - 30 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5746
Abstract
Religious hate propaganda, which is sustained communication by an authority that attempts to guide an audience towards persecuting others based on religion, is a speech crime. Yet, it is one of the least understood and most difficult speech crimes to prosecute. This is [...] Read more.
Religious hate propaganda, which is sustained communication by an authority that attempts to guide an audience towards persecuting others based on religion, is a speech crime. Yet, it is one of the least understood and most difficult speech crimes to prosecute. This is due to misunderstandings and epistemic gaps regarding how persecutory language, which would otherwise have little significance for prosocial religious adherents, becomes meaningful for a religious community. Drawing from the cognitive science of religion (CSR), this article develops and explores the hypothesis that for some religious communities, discursive attacks on others become meaningful when they center on dangerous accusations. Dangerous accusations portray the other as capable of mystical harm and, when made by cultural authorities, become socially accepted truths if repeated during rituals of veridiction. This article shows that dangerous accusations are at the heart of religious hate propaganda and exploit cognitive biases for threat perception, coalitional psychology, and costly signaling. Moreover, dangerous accusations can reinforce the social order and maintain social cohesion. Together, an analysis of speech crimes and dangerous accusations shed light on how religious hate propaganda works, how it can offer meaning to religious communities, and how it can justify persecution in certain environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)
16 pages, 240 KiB  
Article
Religious Symbolism and the Experience of Life as Meaningful: Addition, Enhancement, or Both?
by Nathaniel F. Barrett
Religions 2023, 14(1), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14010088 - 9 Jan 2023
Viewed by 2984
Abstract
This paper explores the question of how religious symbolism functions to provide a more meaningful or enriched experience of life. It examines a common and highly influential view, referred to here as the “source model”, for which this function requires the addition to [...] Read more.
This paper explores the question of how religious symbolism functions to provide a more meaningful or enriched experience of life. It examines a common and highly influential view, referred to here as the “source model”, for which this function requires the addition to experience of transcendent meanings generated by rituals and other specially adapted kinds of symbolic activity. Using Robert Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution and Clifford Geertz’s “Religion as a Cultural System” as representative examples, I critique a key premise of the source model, namely that the meaning-making function of religious symbolism evolved in response to a universal experience of life as problematic. I argue that the experience of life as problematic is a product of symbolism, not a precondition. Moreover, with respect to this experience, I propose that symbolism functions not to add meaning but to enhance meanings that are vaguely discerned in everyday life. I close with the suggestion that an enhanced experience of life as problematic is itself a kind of enriched meaning and an important source of the affective power of religious practice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)
14 pages, 230 KiB  
Article
Cognitivism and Religion: Am I My Keeper’s Brother?
by Timothy Jenkins
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1055; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111055 - 3 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1107
Abstract
The key factor which underwrites both the enduring appeal of cognitivism and its differences with social anthropology relates to its ‘naturalism’, the continuity perceived between animal and humankind, combined with a view of the priority of realism over the imagination. This paper begins [...] Read more.
The key factor which underwrites both the enduring appeal of cognitivism and its differences with social anthropology relates to its ‘naturalism’, the continuity perceived between animal and humankind, combined with a view of the priority of realism over the imagination. This paper begins by tracing the path by which cognitivism first marginalized religion and then restored it to a central place, always relying on a naturalistic account that links mental properties to long term evolutionary patterns. After a brief review of the problems anthropologists have raised with some of the implications of this approach, the paper turns to a recent essay by an evolutionary biologist that casts doubt, using a wide range of evidence from the natural science side, on the continuity between animal worlds and human world views. It concludes by drawing some lessons as to the kind of realism required which might reconcile the two social scientific approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)
16 pages, 331 KiB  
Article
Sport as a Meaning-Making System: Insights from the Study of Religion
by Richard Sosis and Jordan Kiper
Religions 2022, 13(10), 915; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13100915 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2566
Abstract
Meaning-making has been one of the primary domains of religion throughout history, and some have claimed that this is religion’s central function. Yet, the modern era has seen a proliferation of other social institutions that generate meaning for people. Here we reflect on [...] Read more.
Meaning-making has been one of the primary domains of religion throughout history, and some have claimed that this is religion’s central function. Yet, the modern era has seen a proliferation of other social institutions that generate meaning for people. Here we reflect on what religious meaning-making can tell us about meaning-making in secular institutions, with a particular focus on sport. Sport as a meaning-making institution is puzzling since sports are generally considered leisure activities, not serious enough to provide meaningful structure and purpose to human lives. Nonetheless, people do derive meaning from sport and we argue that because sport shares many features with religion, it offers a unique opportunity to examine a secular meaning-making institution. We offer a theoretical framework for the study of meaning-making that derives from our conceptual approach to religion as an adaptive system. We use this approach, and other anthropological research, to delineate seven general characteristics of human meaning-making systems: collective, constructed, subjective, narrative, relational, transcendent, and growth-oriented. These features of meaning-making systems highlight why sport has been so successful at offering meaning to sport enthusiasts, both fans and athletes alike. We conclude with a brief speculative evolutionary scenario that may explain our proclivity for seeking meaning, and why secular institutions will continue to fill that role when religious worldviews are not compelling. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)

Review

Jump to: Research

12 pages, 271 KiB  
Review
Where the Spirit Meets the Bone: Embodied Religiospiritual Cognition from an Attachment Viewpoint
by Anja L. Winter and Pehr Granqvist
Religions 2023, 14(4), 511; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040511 - 7 Apr 2023
Viewed by 2446
Abstract
In this conceptual paper, we suggest that attachment theory is a viable framework for understanding key aspects of embodied religious and spiritual cognition, as seen in religious and spiritual metaphors, rituals, anthropomorphisms, and more. We also discuss embodied cognition as part of mystical [...] Read more.
In this conceptual paper, we suggest that attachment theory is a viable framework for understanding key aspects of embodied religious and spiritual cognition, as seen in religious and spiritual metaphors, rituals, anthropomorphisms, and more. We also discuss embodied cognition as part of mystical experiences and other altered states of consciousness that may occur both within and outside of religious contexts. Therefore, religiospiritual cognition is introduced as an alternative term to religious cognition. We review the basic tenets of attachment theory and conceptually link embodied religiospiritual cognition to attachment-related processes. Finally, we conclude with directions for future research on embodied religiospiritual cognition from an attachment viewpoint. The field of psychedelic science may be especially promising for examining links between attachment and embodied religiospiritual cognition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)
12 pages, 336 KiB  
Review
God(s)’ Mind(s) across Culture and Context
by Rita Anne McNamara
Religions 2023, 14(2), 222; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020222 - 7 Feb 2023
Viewed by 1601
Abstract
This paper explores dimensions of culture and practice that shape the cognitive pathways leading to different beliefs about God(s)’ mind(s). Varying socio-ecological sources of insecurity are linked to types and modes of cognitive processing, which in turn promote different constellations of beliefs about [...] Read more.
This paper explores dimensions of culture and practice that shape the cognitive pathways leading to different beliefs about God(s)’ mind(s). Varying socio-ecological sources of insecurity are linked to types and modes of cognitive processing, which in turn promote different constellations of beliefs about supernatural agents dubbed the heuristic and non-heuristic models of God(s)’ mind(s). The heuristic model is suggested to take prominence when relatively few cognitive resources are available to devote to thinking about God(s)’ mind(s); these conceptions of God(s) should be shaped by the socio-ecological pressures believers face. Conversely, when cognitive resources are available, differences in modes of processing (experiential-intuitive vs. analytical-rational) lead to different mystical and theological/philosophical models of God’s mind as a product of more deliberate, effortful processing. By linking beliefs to socio-ecological influences, this paper suggests phenomenological experiences of the supernatural vary across societies as a direct function of the diverse environmental constraints in which people. By linking belief to socio-ecological pressures individuals in societies face, this approach provides a bridge between the intrinsic meaning systems within communities of belief and the cognitive evolutionary approach to parsing the diversity of belief across societies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Meaning, Mind and Evolution: New Perspectives in the Study of Religion)
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