Cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief.
نویسندگان
چکیده
We propose an integrative cognitive neuroscience framework for understanding the cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief. Our analysis reveals 3 psychological dimensions of religious belief (God's perceived level of involvement, God's perceived emotion, and doctrinal/experiential religious knowledge), which functional MRI localizes within networks processing Theory of Mind regarding intent and emotion, abstract semantics, and imagery. Our results are unique in demonstrating that specific components of religious belief are mediated by well-known brain networks, and support contemporary psychological theories that ground religious belief within evolutionary adaptive cognitive functions.
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
دوره 106 12 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009