This week The Economist released a new story about a European collaboration of scientists who are trying to “explain religion.” The intersection of the religious experience and psychology takes many forms and has been a source of great interest, perhaps since humans developed language capabilities. William James, a seminal figure who spent a considerable amount of time analyzing the intersection of psychology and religion notes in his 1902 book, The Varieties of Religious Experience, that “Religion, whatever it is, is a man’s total reaction upon life.” For an excellent, albeit brief, NPR audio summary of Jame's life work, click here.
The Economist article does an excellent job framing a number of recent academic studies in this area, most of which are viewed from the lens of evolutionary psychology.
Explaining Religion is an ambitious attempt to do this. The experiments it will sponsor are designed to look at the mental mechanisms needed to represent an omniscient deity, whether (and how) belief in such a “surveillance-camera” God might improve reproductive success to an individual's Darwinian advantage, and whether religion enhances a person's reputation—for instance, do people think that those who believe in God are more trustworthy than those who do not? The researchers will also seek to establish whether different religions foster different levels of co-operation, for what reasons, and whether such co-operation brings collective benefits, both to the religious community and to those outside it.
