Challenges Facing the Neurological Study of Religious Behavior, Belief, and Experience

Bibliographic Data

ID12201788
AuthorsPatrick Mcnamara (0000-0003-2756-0887, 1Department of Neurology (127), Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, and VA Boston Healthcare System, 150 South Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA;, Email: [email protected], corresponding author), Wesley J Wildman (0000-0002-7571-1259, Boston University), Wesley Wildman (2Boston University, School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215;, Email: [email protected])
Year2008
Volume20
Issue3
Pages212-242
Publication date2008-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMethod & Theory in the Study of Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0943-3058 • E-ISSN: 1570-0682
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/157006808x317455
OpenAlexW2073913164
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited5

The neurological study of religious behavior, belief, and experience faces many challenges related to research conception, experimental design, and interpretation of results. Some of these problems are common to other types of neurological study of behavioral and cognitive phenomena. Others are distinctive to the specifically religious domain of behavior, belief, and experience. This paper discusses eight of these problems and three key strategic principles for mitigating them. It then proposes an eight-step framework for research into the neurology of religious behavior, belief, and experience that implements the three strategic principles and addresses all eight of the problems

Belief system · Cognition · Computer security · Domain (mathematical analysis · Epistemology · Interpretation (philosophy · Key (lock · Religious belief · Religious experience · Computer Science · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology · Social Psychology

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