Religion
Our interest in studying religion lies within the evolution of religion, ritual, and the cognitive architecture of religion. Within the study of the evolution of religion, there are three main hypotheses as to how religion evolved: (1) religion is an exaptation. This means that religion had some adaptive function, but throughout the millennia, religion has evolved for some other purpose; (2) religion is a spandrel. In other words, it is thought that religion has no function and that it did not evolve to be an adaptation; and lastly, (3) religion is an adaptation. In order for religion to be an adaptation, there has to be some evidence of design. This leads us to why we are interested in studying the cognitive processes of religion. As an example, language is organized according to a specific type of grammar and consists of morphemes, phonemes, syntax, etc. Religion has to have some specific design similar to that of language but with the addition of persons performing rituals and relating to supernatural agents. Although this is a brief overview of why we are studying religion, we invite you to click on the various links related to our current projects to learn more about our interests.
