For an Evolutionary Perspective on Religious Phenomena
Articles
Atran, S., & Norenzayan, A. (2004) Religion’s evolutionary landscape: Counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 713-770.
Blume, M. “The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation“, in: Voland, E. & Schiefenhövel, W. (eds) “The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behaviour“, Springer Frontier Collection 2009.
Graham, J., & Haidt, J. (in press) Beyond beliefs: Religion binds individuals into moral communities. Personality and Social Psychology Review.
Murray, M.J., & Moore, L. (2009) Costly Signaling and the Origin of Religion. Journal of Cognition and Culture 9, 25-245.
Norenzayan, A., & Shariff, A. (2008) The Origin and Evolution of Religious Prosociality. Science 322, 58.
Wilson, D. S. (2005) Testing major evolutionary hypotheses about religion with a random sample. Human Nature 16(4), 382-209.
Books
Atran, S. (2004) In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boyer, P. (2001) Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought. New York: Basic Books.
Bulbulia, J., Sosis, R., Genet, C., Genet, R., Harris, E. & Wyman, K. (ed.) (2008) The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques. Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.
Dennett, D. C. (2006) Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking.
Feierman, J.R. (2009) The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary Origins of Faith and Religion. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Raman, V.V. (2009) Truth and Tension in Science and Religion. New Hampshire: Beech River Books.
Schaller, M., Norenzayan, A., Heine, S.J., Yamagishi, T., & Kameda, T. (eds) (2009) Evolution, Culture and the Human Mind. New York: Psychology Press.
Schloss, J. & Murray, M. (eds) (2009) The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Slone, J. D. (ed) (2009) Religion and Cognition: A Reader. UK: Equinox Publishing.
Voland, E. & Schiefenhövel, W. (ed.) (2009) The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior.
Whitehouse, H. (2004) Modes of Religiosity: A Cognitive Theory of Religious Transmission. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta-Mira Press.
Wilson, D. S. (2002) Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Related Websites
Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture
Cognition, Religion and Theology
Institute for the Biocultural Study of Religion
Institute of Cognition and Culture
The Evolution of Religion: The Adaptive Logic of Religious Belief and Behaviour
Please contact Ian MacDonald with content suggestions.