The Relevance of Hume's Natural History of Religion for Cognitive Science of Religion

Res Philosophica 92 (3):653-674 (2015)
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Abstract

Hume was a cognitive scientist of religion avant la lettre. His Natural History of Religion (1757 [2007]) locates the origins of religion in human nature. This paper explores similarities between some of his ideas and the cognitive science of religion, the multidisciplinary study of the psychological origins of religious beliefs. It also considers Hume’s distinction between two questions about religion: its foundation in reason (the domain of natural theology and philosophy of religion) and its origin in human nature (the domain of cognitive science of religion).

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10.11612/resphil.2015.92.3.5

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Helen De Cruz
Saint Louis University

Citations of this work

Problems of Religious Luck: Assessing the Limits of Reasonable Religious Disagreement.Guy Axtell - 2018 - Lanham, MD, USA & London, UK: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield.

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Warranted Christian Belief.Alvin Plantinga - 2000 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Warranted Christian Belief.Alvin Plantinga - 2000 - Philosophia Christi 3 (2):327-328.

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