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Religion

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Belief; Faith; Religiosity; Worship

Definition

A system of faith and worship typically composed of animism of inanimate objects and sometimes of a superhuman controlling power that may or may not be a personal God or gods and with its own set of moral injunctions.

Introduction

Despite the wide array of both past and present cultures and the incredible variety among them, religion seems to be part of our evolutionary heritage (Schmitt and Fuller 2015; Wilson 2002). Granted, some religions are monotheistic whereas others are polytheistic, and some religions, although not all, believe in a high god creator of the universe. Nevertheless, despite this apparent variability, religions do share some near universal features. Explaining the existence of these beliefs has been a goal of the interdisciplinary field known as the cognitive science of religion, a field that encompasses both the evolutionary psychology and evolutionary anthropology of religion. The major question regarding...

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References

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Correspondence to Vania Rolon .

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Rolon, V. (2018). Religion. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_342-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_342-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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