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Evolutionary Hypotheses of Atheism by Dominic Johnson
As a starting topic for my new scilogs.com-blog about evolutionary studies of religion, I'd like to start with the exploration of - Atheism. Long regarded as the simple default state from which...
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Dr. Michael Heiser about PaleoSETI and Zecharia Sitchin
Since the late 1940s, more and more UFO-mythologies emerged, promising to answer metaphysical and religious questions by technological means. Aliens where thought to hover nearby to bring a new world...
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Religions as (bio-)cultural traditions – Examples from Islam and Christianity
Many people think of religions as kind of blocks falling from the sky. But from a scientific and evolutionary perspective, living religions are more like rivers - starting from a well (already embedded...
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Why is the Penis shaped like That? by Jesse Bering
Among many other things, the one fact I love about evolutionary studies is the all-encompassing perspective! As the online-magazine Evolution - This View of Life puts it: One can (and should) explore...
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Reptiles with a Conscience – The Coevolution of Religious and Moral Doctrine...
There are evolutionary books available presenting new scientific findings and theories. There are others proclaiming a specific thesis and bringing forth respective arguments. And there are, very...
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Jesus Christ in German Colors in Rio
For very good reasons, Germans became very reluctant about merging religious and national symbols after World War II. For many, it was a great experience to see that you could be emotionally attached...
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It’s about Fertility, stupid! The Evolutionary Adaptivity of Religion
Religiosity (defined as behavior towards superempircal agents) is today clearly adaptive: Members of competitive religious communities are building stronger families with more offspring worldwide as...
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Evolutionary Studies of Religion in the German SPIEGEL
Today is a great day. No, not (only) because those pseudo-scientific and greedy doomsayers have been proven wrong (again) by the very fact of a peaceful December 22nd, 2012 (in Germany, that is). My...
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The Amish Paradise – Educating by Humor
Since I explored the Amish for a better understanding of religious fertility potentials, I have published some articles and a (German) eBook to inform my scientific colleagues as well as a broader...
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Evolutionary Studies of Religion – Answering Jonathan Mair
One of the great scientific chances of the Web is the possibility of interfaculty and international dialogue. As I had posted "It's about Fertility, stupid!" about the reproductive potentials of...
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Religion, Brain & Behavior – Free to Download this Month!
Its name is "Religion, Brain & Behavior", it is published by Taylor & Francis - and it quickly became THE cutting-edge journal for evolutionary studies of religion! Being a member of the IBCSR...
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The first German Biography of Antoinette Brown Blackwell as a sciebook
She was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and fought (finally successfully) for her right to study theology as he had done. She became a renowned speaker for women's rights and the abolition of slavery....
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Was Parental Investment Theory discovered only by male scientists?
Parental investment is an important topic in the evolution of sexes and genders throughout nature. It focusses not on purportedly "fixed" traits, but explores the contributions of parents to the...
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May Atheism succeed demographically?
In the wake of the fruitful explosion of Evolutionary Studies of Religion, Evolutionary Studies of Atheism are making inroads, too. I was glad to be able to blog about Dominic Johnson's respective...
View ArticleThe “Russian Amish”– resisting the demographic decline of the former Soviet...
For decades, the Russian population is declining due to low birth rates and (comparatively) low life expectancies. The communist regime of the Soviet Union suppressed and destroyed most religious...
View ArticleSam Harris vs. Scott Atran – Hate vs. Science
As I started to enter the then brand-new field of evolutionary studies of religiosity and religions, I was frequently warned about religious fundamentalists objecting to anyone exploring religious...
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Remembering Robert Bellah (1927 – 2013), Discoverer of Civil Religion
On July 31, one of the great contemporary scholars of religion has left this world. Growing up as a sociologist in the United States during World War II, followed by McCarthyism and the Vietnam War,...
View ArticleThe Power of Narrative – Example by a musical letter from Fred to Sweet Lorraine
Many people seem to believe that "myths" - not necessarily scientific narratives perceived as meaningful by many - are to be found only among religions. Nothing could be farther from the (now...
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Social Psychology of Religion – Ten Gems from Big Gods by Ara Norenzayan
Once in a while, a whole field of research is pushed forward by a seminal work. Ara Norenzayan's "Big Gods. How Religion Transformed Cooperation And Conflict" is one of those rare books bound to...
View ArticleResearching Religion and Prosociality – Lecture by Ara Norenzayan
Ara Norenzayan has been repeatedly featured on my German and English scilogs. My recent review on his new book "Big Gods" and the list of 10 principles of the social psychology of religion have been...
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