Religion and its Evolution: Signals, Norms and Secret Histories

— —

Carl Brusse (The Australian National University, Australia) Kim Sterelny (The Australian National University, Australia)

Religion and its Evolution

Signals, Norms and Secret Histories

Carl Brusse (The Australian National University, Australia), Kim Sterelny (The Australian National University, Australia)

$90.99

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Routledge
06 May 2025

Philosophy; Philosophy of religion; Anthropology; Social, group or collective psychology; The Earth: natural history general

This book examines why individuals and communities invest heavily in their religious life through multi-disciplinary perspectives. It pursues philosophical, psychological, deep time historical and adaptive answers to this question.

Religion is a profoundly puzzling phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective. Commitment to religions are typically expensive, and most of the beliefs that motivate them cannot be true (since religious belief systems are inconsistent with one another). Yet some form of religion seems to be universal and resilient in historically known cultures – though not, if archaeology is to be trusted, in human communities early in the evolution of our species. We have collectively invented religion over about the last 100,000 years. Stemming from an interdisciplinary workshop, this book grapples with these challenges and features diverse contributions: some offer evolutionary and historical analyses, identifying hidden adaptive benefits to religion independent of the veracity of religious belief. Others see connections between religious commitment and commitment to the social norms that make cooperative life possible and explore aspects of human psychology that make religious belief tempting.

Broad in scope and theoretically ambitious, Religion and Its Evolution: Signals, Norms and Secret Histories will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religious studies, sciences of religion, psychology, anthropology, the cultural evolution of religion and the sociology of religion. This book was originally published as a special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior.

Edited by: Carl Brusse (The Australian National University Australia), Kim Sterelny (The Australian National University, Australia)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 246mm, Width: 174mm,
Weight: 280g
ISBN: 9781032628011
ISBN 10: 1032628014
Pages: 146
Publication Date: 06 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Carl Brusse holds postdoctoral appointments at The Australian National University (School of Philosophy) and The University of Sydney (Department of Philosophy and The Charles Perkins Centre), Australia. He works on game theoretic and evolutionary explanation in the human sciences. Kim Sterelny is Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University, Australia. He is the author of The Evolved Apprentice: How Evolution Made Humans Unique (2012) and The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution (2021) among other books.