Abstract
This article discusses the use of evolutionary theory in the cognitive science of religion (CSR), with special attention to critical issues and new developments. In the first part of the article, I will discuss the definition of evolution and describe the Modern Synthesis (or neo-Darwinian theory). In the next part, I will consider various evolutionary perspectives in CSR, including evolutionary psychology, sexual selection, gene-culture co-evolution, and cultural evolution. In the final part, I will turn to the problems with the Modern Synthesis and present a new approach based on network theory, with potential applications to the study of biological and cultural systems. Keywords: cognitive science of religion, evolution, modern synthesis, cultural evolution, gene regulatory networks, evo-devo, deep learning.
Highlights
RESUMO Este artigo discute o uso da teoria evolutiva na ciência cognitiva da religião (CCR), com especial atenção para questões críticas e novos desenvolvimentos
For a more extended formulation of the same basic idea, we can turn to a recent textbook definition (Moran, 2006, p. 1): “Evolution is a process that results in herita le changes in a population spread over many generations.”
The theory of cultural evolution ap lies the principles of evolutionary theory to the study of transmission processes and long-term developments in culture
Summary
(d) Adapti e population c ange is the change in the relative frequency of replicated entities (genes) under the influence of natural selection (as described above), mediated by the environment As it ap ears, a l four components of the Modern Synthesis have come under attack recently. Leda Cosmides and John Tooby (Cosmides and Tooby 1987, 1994; Tooby and Cosmides, 2000), together with a number of other scholars, reasoned that evolution created ecialized cognitive systems in the human mind that coped with ecific cognitive tasks in the environment of our ance ors This version of modularity is ca led mas i e mo ula ity, or the “Swiss army knife” model of the brain. The fields of cognitive archeology and paleoneurology emerged to combine insights from cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and archeology in the understanding of human cognitive evolution (e.g., Coolidge et al, 2015; Hai le et al, 2016)
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