RELIGION AND SCIENCE AS SYSTEMS OF CAUSAL THOUGHT

Authors

  • Frederic March Humanist Society of New Mexico

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v18i1.33

Keywords:

cognitive science, humanism, religion

Abstract

This essay proposes a Cognitive Process Model of the Mind and a Cognitive Sub-Model of Causal Thought to explain how our minds produce religion and science. Our purpose here is to explore how the findings of cognitive science, as expressed in these models, may be applied to improve the social effectiveness of the humanist movement.

Author Biography

  • Frederic March, Humanist Society of New Mexico

    Frederic March is the president of the Humanist Society of New Mexico and has published articles in the Humanist. He is also an environmental policy and planning consultant who has worked in many countries where he observed how people’s social and religious attitudes effect how they frame environmental policy. He is the author of The Bible Through the Eyes of Its Authors – A Political History of Ancient Israel and Judah. He is currently working on a new book, The Human Nature of Religion and Science – An Evolutionary Odyssey. His essay is based on selected material in that book.

References

Boyer, Pascal, Religion Explained: TheEvolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. Penguin 2001

Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. Bantam Books,1988.

Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Fromm, Eric. Psychoanalysis and Religion. Yale University Press, 1950

Gardner. Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basic Books 2004

Halverson, William H. A Concise Introduction to Philosophy. 3rd Edition. Random House 1976

Hauser, Marc D. Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. Harper-Collins 2006

Hauser, Marc D. Could a Covert Moral Grammar Underlie the Illusion of a Conscious Reasoning? Science & Spirit, Spring 2006

Heschel, Abraham Joshua. Man is not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux 1976

Hillar, Marian. Moral Philosophy and Modern Sciences. Houston Freethought Alliance Newsletter, January 2008

Keen, Sam. The Stories We Live By. Psychology Today, November 1988

Lakoff, George. Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Chelsea Green 2000

Mithen, Steven. The Prehistory of the Mind – The Cognitive Foundations of Religion. Thames & Hudson 1996

Paden, William E. Religion – Definitions of Religion, Encarta Encyclopedia 99

Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge University Press 1990

Rose, William J. Human Nature and the Future of Humans and the Humanist. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, Vol. 17 (1) Spring-Summer 2009.

Russell, Bertrand, A History of Western Philosophy. Simon & Schuster 1972

Spinoza, Baruch. Theological-Political Treatise. 2nd Ed. Hackett 2001

Sproul, Deborah C. Primal Myths – Introduction. Harper Collins 1979

Taleb, Nasssim Nicholas. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Probable. Random House 2007

Tremlin, Todd. Minds and Gods – The Cognitive Foundations of Religion. Oxford University Press 2006

Wade, Nicholas. Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. Penguin 2007.

Wilson, Edward O. On Human Nature. Harvard University Press, 1978, 2004

Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States, Ch. 1 Harper Collins, 1995

Published

2013-10-09

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

March, F. (2013). RELIGION AND SCIENCE AS SYSTEMS OF CAUSAL THOUGHT. Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, 18(1), 33-56. https://doi.org/10.1558/eph.v18i1.33