Which functions assumed to be religious and spiritual in nature are ultimately attributable or reducible to purely secular mechanisms?

There is a commonly held assumption that religiosity/spirituality (R/S) reflects unique causal mechanisms in areas such as prosociality, mental health, and in the debate regarding the evolutionary origins of religion. However, because most studies are unequipped to rule out the possibility that R/S...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Galen, Luke (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge 2017
In: Religion, brain & behavior
Year: 2017, Volume: 7, Issue: 4, Pages: 293-295
Further subjects:B Secular
B Well-being
B Prosociality
B Nonreligious
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:There is a commonly held assumption that religiosity/spirituality (R/S) reflects unique causal mechanisms in areas such as prosociality, mental health, and in the debate regarding the evolutionary origins of religion. However, because most studies are unequipped to rule out the possibility that R/S features are actually attributable to nonreligious, secular causal mechanisms, this assumption represents a congruence fallacy. The solution to this problem is for studies to control for secular variables such as group attendance and demographics in order to determine whether religious belief adds incremental predictive variance. Experiments must use manipulations consisting of equivalent secular and religious stimuli, such as "dismantling" designs.
ISSN:2153-5981
Contains:Enthalten in: Religion, brain & behavior
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/2153599X.2016.1249919