The attraction of religion: a new evolutionary psychology of religion

Table of Content:

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction. Connecting Religion, Sex, and Evolution, Jason Slone (Professor of Cognition and Culture,

Chapter 1. Why Don't Abstinence Programs Work? (and other Puzzles), James Van Slyke (Assistant Professor of Psychology, School of Humanities, Religion & Social Sciences, Fresno Pacific University, USA)

Chapter 2. Religion and Parental Cooperation: An Empirical Test of Slone's Sexual Signaling Model,
Chapter 3. How Is't With Thy Religion, Pray? Selection of Religion among Individuals and Groups,
Chapter 4. Losing My Religion: A Life-History Analysis of the Decline of Religious Attendance from
Chapter 5. Costly Signaling Theory, Sexual Selection, and the Influence of Ancestors on Religious
Chapter 6. When Religion Makes It Worse: Religiously Motivated Violence as a Sexual Selection Weapon,
Chapter 7. The Dividends of Discounting Pain: Self-Inflicted Pain as a Reputational Commodity, Matthew
Chapter 8. Religion and Marketing: The Attractiveness of Religion as a Moral Brand, Panagiotis Mitkidis
Chapter 9. Fathering, Rituals, and Mating: Exploring Paternal Stability and Sexual Strategies in Early
Chapter 10. The Evolutionary Psychology of Theology, Andrew Mahoney (independent academic and

Religion is an evolutionary puzzle. It involves beliefs in counterfactual worlds and engagement in costly rituals. Yet religion is widespread across all human cultures and eras. This begs the question, why are so many people attracted to religion?

In The Attraction of Religion, essays by leading scholars in evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and religious studies demonstrate how religion may be related to evolutionary adaptations because religious commitments involve fitness-enhancing behaviours that promote reproduction, kinship, and social solidarity. Could it be that religion is wide-spread, at least in the modern world, because it helps to facilitate cooperative breeding? International contributors explore the philosophical and theoretical arguments for and against the use of costly signalling, sexual selection, and related theories to explain religion, and empirical findings that support or disconfirm such claims. The first book-length treatment that focuses specifically on costly signalling, sexual selection, and related evolutionary theories to explain religion, The Attraction of Religion will be an important contribution to the field and will be of interest to researchers in the fields of evolutionary psychology, religion and science, the psychology of religion, and anthropology of religion.

http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-attraction-of-religion-9781350005280/