Helen De Cruz and Johan De Smedt

The MIT Press

release date December 2014 (US) /January 2015 (world)

Available for preorder on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Theology-Cognitive-Philosophy/dp/0262028549

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natural-History-Theology-Cognitive-Philosophy/dp/0262028549

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Arguments for the existence of God, such as the moral, design, and

cosmological argument, have an enduring popularity across times and

cultures. This book examines the cognitive origins of the enduring

fascination with natural theology, looking at the intuitions that underlie its

practice. We argue that intuitions that underlie arguments in natural

theology have a stable cognitive basis and emerge early in development.

While natural theological arguments can be very sophisticated, they are

rooted in everyday intuitions about purpose, causation, agency, and

morality that emerge early in development and that are a stable part of

human cognition.

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This book contains an in-depth examination of the cognitive basis of

natural theological arguments, using historical and contemporary versions

of these arguments as they are developed by theologians and philosophers

of religion. It integrates this with theories and empirical findings from the

cognitive sciences, in particular the multidisciplinary endeavor of the

cognitive science of religion, which incorporates among others

developmental psychology, cognitive anthropology, and cognitive

neuroscience.

We challenge two ideas that are widespread in cognitive science of religion,

theology, and philosophy of religion: (1) that natural theology is a highly

arcane endeavor, far removed from everyday cognitive dispositions, (2) that

questions about the origin and justification of religious beliefs should be

considered separately. We find that arguments in natural theology resonate

deeply with intuitions that humans universally hold. Therefore, natural

theology builds upon cognitive foundations that also underlie folk religious

beliefs. We also challenge the strict division between justification and

origins of religious belief, as the intuitions underlying natural theological

arguments—by which religious beliefs are traditionally defended—are the

result of evolved cognitive propensities.

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“A new and illuminating look at arguments for the existence of

God. Brings to bear up-to-date knowledge of cognitive science

to show that the staying power of the traditional proofs is no

accident; they are deeply rooted in the ways we cognize the

world.”

— Howard Wettstein, Professor of Philosophy, University

of California, Riverside; author of The Significance of Religious Experience

“In A Natural History of Natural Theology the enduring

tradition of natural theology meets an academic newcomer,

the cognitive science of religion. In this unique meeting, De

Cruz and De Smedt offer a bold, fascinating, and remarkably

clear account of the cognitive basis of theological

arguments. A Natural History of Natural Theology will not

only be appreciated by cognitive scientists and theologians,

but will be of interest to anyone who has ever considered

arguments for or against the existence of God.”

— Richard Sosis, James Barnett Professor of Humanistic

Anthropology, University of Connecticut; cofounder and

coeditor of Religion, Brain & Behavior

“Science has long forced theological thinkers to respond to

new evidence about the nature of the world. De Cruz and De

Smedt go a step further: what happens to theology when the

science in question is the science of theological thought itself?

This ambitious book represents an exciting new chapter in

the science–theology dialogue.”

—Justin L. Barrett, Thrive Professor of Developmental

Science, Fuller Graduate School of Psychology; author of Born Believers: The Science of Children’s Religious Belief

“ Why is religion culturally universal? Why do our senses of

order, design, and beauty lead us to infer a Designer? De

Cruz and De Smedt lucidly and seamlessly join philosophy

with cognitive science to provide accessible, empirically

based answers. Their huge achievement greatly advances

religious studies.”

—Stewart Elliott Guthrie, Professor Emeritus of

Anthropology, Fordham University; author of Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion

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1. Natural Theology and Natural History

Two Questions about Religion

What Is Natural Theology?

What Is Cognitive Science of Religion?

Summary

2. The Naturalness of Religious Beliefs

The Human Cognitive Toolbox

Intuitive Ontologies as Natural Modes of Reasoning

Naturalness

Intuitiveness

Summary

3. Intuitions about God’s Knowledge: Anthropomorphism or Preparedness?

Is Natural Theology Cognitively Unnatural?

Divine Attributes

God Concepts as a Form of Anthropomorphism

The Preparedness Hypothesis

A Conflict between Anthropomorphism and Preparedness?

Toward an Integrated Account

Preparedness and Cognitive Load

Anthropomorphism and Efficient Cognitive Processing

The Tragedy of the Theologian Revisited

Summary

4. Teleology, the Design Stance, and the Argument from Design

The Argument from Design

How We Infer Design

Are Humans Intuitive Theists?

Intuitive Probability: Can Chance Events Produce Order and

Complexity?

A Rational Basis for Disagreement

Is There Still a Place for the Design Argument?

Summary

5. The Cosmological Argument and Intuitions about Causality and Agency

The Cosmological Argument and Human Cognition

Causal Cognition and the Inference to a First Cause

Intuitions about Agency in the Identification of God

Evolutionary Debunking Arguments

Internalist Justification

Summary

6. The Moral Argument in the Light of Evolutionary Ethics

The Argument from Moral Awareness

The Evolution of Human Morality

The Argument from Moral Objectivism

Is Moral Realism Intuitive?

CSR and the Link between Theism and Morality

Evolutionary Debunking Arguments against Moral Realism

Are Theism and Evolutionary Ethics Compatible?

Summary

7. The Argument from Beauty and the Evolutionary Basis of Aesthetic

Experience

Aesthetic Arguments

Aesthetic Appreciation as Universal Human Behavior

Evolutionary Aesthetics

Beauty and Sexual Selection

Aesthetic Appreciation and Evolved Sensory Biases

The Biophilia Hypothesis

Cognitive and Evolutionary Explanations of the Sense of the

Sublime

Linking Aesthetic Properties with God’s Existence

Aesthetic Experience and Religious Fictionalism

Summary

8. The Argument from Miracles and the Cognitive Science of Religious

Testimony

The Argument from Miracles

Defining Miracles from Historical and Cognitive Perspectives

The Cultural Transmission of Minimally Counterintuitive ideas

Reliance on Testimony to Miracles

Implications for the Argument from Miracles

Summary

9. The Natural History of Religion and the Rationality of Religious Beliefs

Natural History of Religion and Justification

Undercutting and Rebutting Defeaters

Generalized Evolutionary Debunking Strategies and CSR

Specific Evolutionary Debunking Arguments against Religion

Does CSR Debunk or Vindicate Natural Theology? 194

Summary

Notes

References

Index !