Table of Contents

Introduction Gregory Dawes and James Maclaurin Part I: The Study of Religion 1. What is Religion? Gregory Dawes and James Maclaurin 2. Evolutionary Religion Studies: Notes on a Unified Science of Religion Todd Tremlin 3. Explaining Effervescence Joseph Bulbulia and Paul Reddish 4. Implicit Measures in the Experimental Psychology of Religion Jonathan Jong Part II: Explanatory Strategies 5. Explaining Ritual Harvey Whitehouse 6. Ecological Signalling Joseph Bulbulia, Marcus Frean, and Paul Reddish 7. Thinking about Religion: Examining Progress in Religious Cognition Aaron C.T. Smith and Howard Sankey Part III: Philosophical Implications 8. Evolutionary Debunking Arguments in Three Domains: Fact, Value, and Religion John S. Wilkins and Paul E. Griffiths 9. Subversive Explanations Charles R. Pigden 10. Do Naturalistic Explanations of Religious Beliefs Debunk Religion? Robert Nola 11. The Rationality of Heuristic Religious Belief Graham Wood Notes on Contributors Notes Index

About the Author

Gregory Dawes holds a joint appointment as Associate Professor in Philosophy and Religion at the University of Otago and has PhD degrees in biblical studies and philosophy from the University of Otago. He has published three books within the area of biblical studies and is the author of Theism and Explanation (Routledge, 2009).


James Maclaurin is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Otago and completed his PhD at Australian National University. He is a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand and co-authored What is Biodiversity? (2008) with Kim Sterelny.