DAILY ASSIGNMENTS

Part VIII: Explaining Religion

Day 28, Wednesday, April 26: An Evolutionary-Psychological (aka Cognitive Science of Religion) Approach

• **Reading: Robert McCauley, “The Naturalness of Religion and the Unnaturalness of Science,” in Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson, eds., Explanation and Cognition, MIT Press, 2000. Pp. 61-83. (Copy provided by Robert McCauley to the instructor.)

[The following short blogs by McCauley count as one reading for the purposes of a response. That is, if you submit a response to the readings below, you should include all five blogs in your discussion. That will count as one response.]

• *Reading: Robert McCauley, “The Ultimate Conflict Between Science and Religion: Science Restricts the Domains Where Agent Explanations Are Acceptable.”
• *Reading: Robert McCauley, “Social Solidarity and Support for Suicide Bombings: Testing Hitchens' Hypothesis.”
• *Reading: Robert McCauley, “God Is Just a Natural Disaster Away: Experiencing natural disasters reverses trends toward secularization.”
• *Reading: Robert McCauley, “Big Gods and Babies: Do Big Gods trade-off between vertical and horizontal transmission?”
• *Reading: Robert McCauley, “Be Fruitful and Multiply: birthrates are below replacement in much of the world except among the religious.”

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF THE FINAL COMPLETE CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER IS MONDAY, MAY 8, AT 5:00 P.M.