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A break from our regularly scheduled program to put a spotlight on some of our faithful leader’s academic work. The Journal of Cognition and Culture published some research that was co-authored by a fantastic group of scholars, Justin L. Barrett, R. Daniel Shaw, Joseph Pfeiffer, and Jonathan Grimes.
These articles are part of Justin’s work in cognitive science of religion. It looks at types of god concepts, how they correlate to gods thought to be “good” or “bad,” where these gods are thought to dwell, and other variances. If this research interests you, abstracts and links are below, along with a download link for the dataset.
Abstract: If “Big Gods” evolved in part because of their ability to morally regulate groups of people who cannot count on kin or reciprocal altruism to get along (Norenzayan, 2013), then powerful gods would tend to be good gods. If the mechanism for this cooperation is some kind of fear of supernatural punishment (Johnson & Bering, 2006), then we may expect that mighty gods tend to be punishing gods. The present study is a statistical analysis of superhuman being concepts from 20 countries on five continents to explore whether the goodness of a god is related to its mightiness. Gods that looked more like the God of classical theism and gods that were low in anthropomorphism were more likely to be regarded as morally good and to be the target of religious practices. Mighty gods were not, however, especially likely to punish or to be a “high god.”
Where the Gods Dwell: a Research Report
Abstract: Are the places that superhuman beings purportedly act and dwell randomly or arbitrarily distributed? Inspired by theoretical work in cognitive science of religion, descriptions of superhuman beings (e.g., ancestors, demons, ghosts, gods, spirits) were solicited from informants in 20 countries on five continents, resulting in 108 usable descriptions, including information about these beings’ properties, their dwelling location, and whether they were the target of rituals. Whether superhuman beings are the subject of religious and ritual practices appeared to co-vary in relation to both features of physical geography and cognitive factors. Good gods were more likely the focus of religious practices than evil gods, and where the gods are thought to dwell mattered. If either the being was thought to dwell in a dangerous place or a resource rich place, it was more likely to have practices directed at it.
