scholarly journals Vital Energy and Afterlife: Implications for Cognitive Science of Religion

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (61) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maira Monteiro Roazzi ◽  
Carl N. Johnson ◽  
Melanie Nyhof ◽  
Silvia Helena Koller ◽  
Antonio Roazzi
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Cognitive Science Of Religion ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
Culture And Development ◽  
Supernatural Agency ◽  
Intuitive Theory

Literature investigating people’s concepts of supernatural agency (such as ghosts and deities) points to an intuitive theory of mind underlying such ideas, however, recent studies suggest that intuitive ideas over vital energy could also be involved. The present paper focuses on examining the culture and development of people’s conceptions on vital energy. A search was made using the keyword vital energy targeting literature from Anthropology, Psychology and Cognitive Science. A literature review over this topic was made yielding reflections over the development of vital energy concepts. Results suggest that an intuitive biology, grounded on ideas of biological energy (vital energy), may underlie an understanding of soul, spirit, and supernatural energy. Future empirical studies should target the development of vital energy intuitive theories with different age ranges and cultures.

Did a Little Birdie Really Tell Odin? Applying Theory of Mind to Old Norse Religion

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 280-308
Author(s):  
Declan Taggart
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Old Norse ◽  
Viking Age ◽  
Cognitive Science Of Religion ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
Religious Theory ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Theory of mind, the theory that humans attribute mental states to others, has become increasingly influential in the Cognitive Science of Religion in recent years, due to several papers which posit that supernatural agents, like gods, demons, and the dead, are accredited greater than normal knowledge and awareness. Using Old Norse mythology and literary accounts of Old Norse religion, supported by archaeological evidence, I examine the extent to which this modern perspective on religious theory of mind is reflected in religious traditions from the Viking Age. I focus especially on the extent to which superperception and superknowledge were attributed to Old Norse supernatural agents and the impact of this on expressions of religion; how the attribution of theory of mind varied with circumstances and the agents to which it was being attributed; and the extent to which features of religious theory of mind common in other societies were present in the historical North. On this basis, I also evaluate the usefulness of Old Norse historiography to Cognitive Science of Religion and vice versa.

Cognitive Science of Religion and the Study of Islam: Rethinking Islamic Theology, Law, Education, and Mysticism Using the Works of al-Ghazālī

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aria Nakissa
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Cognitive Science Of Religion ◽  
Islamic Theology ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
The Universe

Abstract Specialists in Islamic studies have taken virtually no interest in the influential and rapidly developing field of Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR). The present article seeks to address this problem by considering how insights from CSR can be systematically applied to reconceptualize Islamic theology, law, education, and mysticism. The article centers on what is probably CSR’s most influential and well-established idea; namely, that religion is closely linked to an evolved “mindreading” ability (i.e., a “Theory of Mind Module”). It is argued that Islamic theology employs mindreading focused on events and objects in the universe, Islamic law and education employ mindreading focused on scriptural texts and embodied practices, and Islamic mysticism employs mindreading focused on psychological experiences. The article develops these ideas through an analysis of the Arabic-language writings of Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī, the famous medieval Islamic theologian, jurist, and mystic.

scholarly journals Cognition and Transfer of Contagious Substance in Hindu Himalayan Pilgrim Journeys

Open Theology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Nordin
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Cognitive Science Of Religion ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Psychological Essentialism ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
Cognitive Selection ◽  
Supernatural Agency ◽  
Substance Transfer

AbstractIdeas and practices about the transfer of substances believed to be charged with positive or negative properties are significant features of pilgrimages. Oftenneglected features of pilgrimages can be addressed by adopting concepts from the Cognitive Science of Religion. Religious pilgrimages are popular phenomena that are based on ritual interaction with culturally-postulated counterintuitive supernatural agents. This article partly refers to and analyses ethnographic data gathered during fieldwork among Hindu pilgrims in Nepal and Tibet. The pilgrims received items to take home from the pilgrimage site but they also left other items there. This constituted a transfer of contagious substances that carried blessings and supernatural agency/power and it enabled the discharging of defilement, sin or evil. The aim of this article is to show how the beliefs about substance transfer are shaped by cultural institutions and by cognitive selection pressures related to psychological essentialism and concepts of agency and contagion relating to counterintuitive agents.

scholarly journals Extending Cognitive Science of Religion on Ethnographic Field Notes from the Archive of G.M. Vasilevich

2020 ◽  
pp. 76-82
Author(s):  
Aleksandra D. Belova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Cognitive Anthropology ◽  
Cognitive Science Of Religion ◽  
Methodological Basis ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Science Of Religion ◽  
New Perspective

The article offers a new perspective on field materials collected by an outstanding ethnographer and Tungus studies specialist Glafira Vasilevich. The author of the article draws attention to the ideas in the field materials that are directly related to the thinking of the Evenks. During the work in the archives of the MAE RAS, it was noted that field materials relating to the Evenki imagination can be analyzed via cognitive anthropology and psychology. The article takes a variety of materials for analysis that refers to the thinking of the Evenks: hunting amulets, names, ideas of the appearance of birds and the image of fire. Ideas on implicit meanings (Douglas), the theory of mind (Gervais and others) and promiscuous teleology (Banerjee, Bloom and others) are taken as the methodological basis for the analytical commentary. Each of the selected concepts and all of them together allow to look at the imagination of the Evenks, which generates ideas about the supernatural based on everyday thinking. The article shows how linguistic, logical and moral categories are extended to the animal and natural world through misattribution.

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