A Natural History of Natural Theology PDF
Preview A Natural History of Natural Theology
A Natural History of Natural Theology A Natural History of Natural Theology The Cognitive Science of Theology and Philosophy of Religion Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2015 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected]. This book was set in Stone Sans Std and Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited, Hong Kong. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data De Cruz, Helen, 1978– . A natural history of natural theology : the cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion / Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-262-02854-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Natural theology. 2. God— Proof. 3. Cognition. 4. Religion— Philosophy. I. Title. BL183.D4 2014 210 — dc23 2014017234 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Ali é nor and Gabriel Contents Acknowledgments xi Introduction xiii 1 Natural Theology and Natural History 1 Two Questions about Religion 1 What Is Natural Theology? 5 What Is Cognitive Science of Religion? 12 Summary 16 2 The Naturalness of Religious Beliefs 19 The Human Cognitive Toolbox 19 Intuitive Ontologies as Natural Modes of Reasoning 26 Naturalness 30 Intuitiveness 33 Summary 39 3 Intuitions about God’ s Knowledge: Anthropomorphism or Preparedness? 41 Is Natural Theology Cognitively Unnatural? 42 Divine Attributes 44 God Concepts as a Form of Anthropomorphism 45 The Preparedness Hypothesis 48 A Conflict between Anthropomorphism and Preparedness? 51 Toward an Integrated Account 52 Preparedness and Cognitive Load 54 Anthropomorphism and Efficient Cognitive Processing 56 The Tragedy of the Theologian Revisited 58 Summary 60 4 Teleology, the Design Stance, and the Argument from Design 61 The Argument from Design 62 How We Infer Design 65 viii Contents Are Humans Intuitive Theists? 70 Intuitive Probability: Can Chance Events Produce Order and Complexity? 72 A Rational Basis for Disagreement 76 Is There Still a Place for the Design Argument? 79 Summary 84 5 The Cosmological Argument and Intuitions about Causality and Agency 85 The Cosmological Argument and Human Cognition 85 Causal Cognition and the Inference to a First Cause 89 Intuitions about Agency in the Identification of God 94 Evolutionary Debunking Arguments 100 Internalist Justification 102 Summary 108 6 The Moral Argument in the Light of Evolutionary Ethics 109 The Argument from Moral Awareness 110 The Evolution of Human Morality 112 The Argument from Moral Objectivism 119 Is Moral Realism Intuitive? 121 CSR and the Link between Theism and Morality 122 Evolutionary Debunking Arguments against Moral Realism 125 Are Theism and Evolutionary Ethics Compatible? 128 Summary 130 7 The Argument from Beauty and the Evolutionary Basis of Aesthetic Experience 131 Aesthetic Arguments 133 Aesthetic Appreciation as Universal Human Behavior 135 Evolutionary Aesthetics 137 Beauty and Sexual Selection 138 Aesthetic Appreciation and Evolved Sensory Biases 140 The Biophilia Hypothesis 142 Cognitive and Evolutionary Explanations of the Sense of the Sublime 145 Linking Aesthetic Properties with God’ s Existence 147 Aesthetic Experience and Religious Fictionalism 151 Summary 154 8 The Argument from Miracles and the Cognitive Science of Religious Testimony 155 The Argument from Miracles 156 Defining Miracles from Historical and Cognitive Perspectives 157 The Cultural Transmission of Minimally Counterintuitive Ideas 161 Reliance on Testimony to Miracles 165 Contents ix Implications for the Argument from Miracles 172 Summary 178 9 The Natural History of Religion and the Rationality of Religious Beliefs 179 Natural History of Religion and Justification 179 Undercutting and Rebutting Defeaters 183 Generalized Evolutionary Debunking Strategies and CSR 186 Specific Evolutionary Debunking Arguments against Religion 188 Does CSR Debunk or Vindicate Natural Theology? 194 Summary 199 Notes 201 References 207 Index 241
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