Interdisciplinary Workshop on Morality and Cognition

Apr 15, 2011

Neuroscience and Religion

Examining implications of research in the cognitive sciences on understandings of religion, religious practice, and the study of theology.

Recommended reading:

Murphy, N. 1999. “Physicalism Without Reductionism: Toward a Scientifically, Philosophically, and Theologically Sound Portrait of Human Nature.” Zygon 35(4):551-571.

Peterson, G. R., M. Spezio, J. A. Van Slyke, K. Reimer, and W. Brown. 2010. “The Rationality of Ultimate Concern: Moral Exemplars, Theological Ethics, and the Science of Moral Cognition” Theology and Science 8(2):139-161.

Haidt, J. 2009. “Moral psychology and the misunderstanding of religion.” The believing primate: Scientific, philosophical, and theological reflections on the origin of religion. J. Schloss & M. Murray (eds.) New York: Oxford. pp. 278-291.

Pyysia, I., and M.Hauser. 2009. The origins of religion: evolved adaptation or by-product? Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Russell, R. J., N. Murphy, T.C. Meyering, and M. A. Arbib. Neuroscience and the Person: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action. Berkeley: Vatican Observatory Foundation; Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, 2002.

Trimble, M.R. 2007. The Soul in the Brain: The Cerebral Basis of Language, Art, and Belief. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Newberg, A. B., E. G. D’Aquili, and V. Rause. 2001. Why God won’t go away : Brain science and the biology of belief. New York: Ballantine Books.

Runehov, A.L.C. 2007. Sacred or Neural?: The Potential of Neuroscience to Explain Religious Experience. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Harris S, S.A. Sheth, M.S. Cohen. 2008. Functional neuroimaging of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. Annals of Neurology 63:141–7.

Persinger MA. ‘I would kill in God’s name:’ role of sex, weekly church attendance, report of a religious experience, and limbic lability. Perceptual Motor Skills (1997) 85:128–30

Spezio, M.L. 2009. Interiority and Purpose: Emerging Points of Contact for Theology and the Neurosciences.Theology and Science 7(2):119-121.

Ashbrook, J.B., and C.R. Albright. 1997. The Humanizing Brain: Where Religion and Neuroscience Meet.Pilgrim Press.