Name: The Fracture of an Illusion
Brand: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co.KG
SKU: 9783525569405
Price: 52.99 GBP
Availability: InStock

The Fracture of an Illusion

Science and the Dissolution of Religion -- Frankfurt Templeton Lectures 2008

By (author): Pascal Boyer, Afterword by: Wolfgang Achtner, Edited by: Thomas M. Schmidt, Edited by: Michael G. Parker

Published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co.KG

Temporarily Out-of-Stock Available to Pre-order

£52.99

Format: Paperback
Pages: 112
ISBN: 9783525569405
Publication Date: 21-Jul-2010

Subjects:
Religion & science

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Pascal Boyer argues that religion is largely an illusion. The anthropologist traces religion's cognitive and evolutionary aspects. By "religion" he means a kind of existential and cognitive "package" that includes views about supernatural agency (gods), notions of morality, particular rituals and sometimes particular experiences, as well as membership in a particular community of believers. The package, however, does not really exist as such. Notions of supernatural agents, of morality, of ethnic identity, or ritual requirements and other experience, all appear in human minds independently. This implies that there is no such thing as a conflict between science and religion. Boyer takes the reader onto a journey through science and the dissolution of religion.

Pascal Boyer, PhD, ist Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory an der Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Er ist Psychologe, Anthropologe und Religionsphilosoph und hat Forschungsstellen an verschiedenen UniversitÃ¤ten weltweit.

Dr. phil. Thomas M. Schmidt is Professor of Religious Philosophy at the Department of Catholic Theology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt.

Michael G. Parker, PhD, is a philosopher of religion in Frankfurt.

Dr. theol. Wolfgang Achtner ist Privatdozent fÃ"r Theologie und Naturwissenschaft an der UniversitÃ¤t GieÃen und der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-UniversitÃ¤t Frankfurt. Er ist BegrÃ"nder und Direktor des Transscientia Instituts fÃ"r InterdisziplinÃ¤re Wissenschaftsentwicklung, Philosophie und Religion.