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

Bibliographic Data

ID16909342
AuthorsLuke W Galen (Grand Valley State University, corresponding author), Luke Galen (0000-0002-0850-2756)
Year2017
Volume7
Issue4
Pages293-295
Publication date2017-10-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligion Brain & Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2153-5981 • E-ISSN: 2153-599X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/2153599x.2016.1249919
OpenAlexW2593254853
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited17

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

Secular variation · Sociology · Demography · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

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