{"product_id":"why-religion-is-natural-and-science-is-not","title":"Why Religion is Natural and Science is Not","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe battle between religion and science  competing methods of knowing ourselves and our world  has been raging for many centuries. Now scientists themselves are looking at cognitive foundations of religion--and arriving at some surprising conclusions.  Over the course of the past two decades  scholars have employed insights gleaned from cognitive science  evolutionary biology  and related disciplines to illuminate the study of religion. In Why Religion is Natural and Science Is Not  Robert N. McCauley  one of the founding fathers of the cognitive science of religion  argues that our minds are better suited to religious belief than to scientific inquiry. Drawing on the latest research and illustrating his argument with commonsense examples  McCauley argues that religion has existed for many thousands of years in every society because the kinds of explanations it provides are precisely the kinds that come naturally to human minds. Science  on the other hand  is a much more recent and rare development because it reaches radical conclusions and requires a kind of abstract thinking that only arises consistently under very specific social conditions. Religion makes intuitive sense to us  while science requires a lot of work. McCauley then draws out the larger implications of these findings. The naturalness of religion  he suggests  means that science poses no real threat to it  while the unnaturalness of science puts it in a surprisingly precarious position.  Rigorously argued and elegantly written  this provocative book will appeal to anyone interested in the ongoing debate between religion and science  and in the nature and workings of the human mind.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44964268736565,"sku":"ByrdShop_0199827265","price":39.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780199827268.jpg?v=1770454725","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/why-religion-is-natural-and-science-is-not","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}