Beautiful Reflections: The Cognitive and Evolutionary Foundations of Paradise Representations

Author: Närhi, Jani¹

Source: Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, Volume 20, Number 4, 2008 , pp. 339-365(27)

Publisher: BRILL

Key:

- Free Content

- New Content

- Subscribed Content

- Free Trial Content

Abstract:

In addition to god beliefs, belief in life after death or in a nostalgic era when everything was perfect is a widespread phenomenon in world religions. In this paper, my aim is to explain how and why paradise beliefs have emerged and why they have survived over generations. Using recent theories and results from the cognitive and evolutionary study of religion as well as from studies of environmental preferences, I suggest that the answer lies in pan-human unconscious motivations, the architecture of mind, and the way human mind processes information.

Keywords: COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION; CULTURAL TRANSMISSION; ENVIRONMENTAL PREFERENCES; ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY; EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY; PARADISE

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1163/157006808X371815

Affiliations: 1: Department of Comparative Religion, University of Helsinki, Finland

Free content The full text is free.

View now: