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Behavioral and Brain Sciences Behavioral and Brain Sciences

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Counterintuition, existential anxiety, and religion as a by-product of the designing mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2005

Deborah Kelemen
Deborah Kelemen*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA02131http://www.bu.edu/childcognition/
*
dkelemen@bu.edu
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Abstract:

In arguing for religion as a side effect of everyday cognition, Atran & Norenzayan (A&N) provide useful analyses of the strengths of the “naturalness-of-religion” position over others; however, experimental shortcomings limit the contributions of their empirical work. A relevant addendum involves considering research on children's orientation to teleological explanations of natural phenomena, which suggests that relatively rich cognitive proclivities might underlie religious thought.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 27 , Issue 6 , December 2004 , pp. 739 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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