The cognitive science of religion examines the mental processes that govern religious belief and behaviour. It offers a fresh and exciting approach to the scientific study of religion. 'Religion and Cognition' brings together key essays which outline the theory and illustrate this with experimental case material. The central topics in this new critical field of research are all addressed: meta-theoretical arguments for cognitive explanations of religion; theoretical models of cognition employed in the cognitive science of religion; prominent cognitive theories of religion; methods used to gather data and test theories; and experimental findings by cognitive scientists of religion.

Part I 1. "The Social Siences" E.O. Wilson 2. "The Epidemiology of Beliefs: A Naturalistic Approach." D. Sperber 3. "Toward a Topography of Mind: An Introduction to Domain Specificity" L. Hirschfeld & S. Gelman. 4. "Interpretation and Explanation: Problems and Promise in the Study of Religion." E.T. Lawson & R.N. McCauley. 5. "Exploring the Natural Foundations of Religion." J. Barrett Part II 6. "Anthropomorphism and God Concepts: Conceptualizing a Non-Natural Entity." J. Barrett & F. Keil. 7. "Spreading Non-Natural Concepts: The Role of Intuitive Conceptual Structures in Memory and Transmission in Culture." J. Barrett & M. Nyhoff. 8. "Cognitive Templates for Religious Concepts: Cross-Cultural Evidence for Recall of Counter-Intuitive Representations." P. Boyer & C. Ramble 9. "Ritual Intuitions: Cognitive Contributions to Judgments of Ritual Efficacy." J. Barrett & E.T. Lawson. 10. "Cognitive and Contextual Factors In the Emergence of Diverse Belief Systems: Creation vs. Evolution." E.M. Evans. 11. "Are Children Intuitive Theists? Reasoning and Purpose in Design and Nature." D. Keleman. 12. "Children's Attributes of Beliefs to Humans and God: Cross-Cultural Evidence." N. Knight, J. Barrett, S. Atran, & P. Sousa. 13. "The Natural Emergence of Afterlife Reasoning as a Developmental Regularity." J. Bering & D. Bjorklund.