Born believers : the science of children’s religious belief
Barrett, Justin L.
In this book the author, a developmental psychologist and anthropologist, presents a theory that we are predisposed to believe in God from birth. It all begins in the brain. Infants, under the sway of powerful internal and external forces, make sense of their environments by imagining a creative and intelligent agent, a grand controller who makes the sun shine and the night fall. In the chaos of childhood, where so much is out of the child's control, this belief in a morally good creator can bring tremendous comfort and calm. A child's world is then filled with beings who intentionally act upon the environment, maintaining order. Summarizing scientific experiments conducted with children across the globe, the author illustrates the ways human beings have come to develop complex belief systems about God's omniscience, the afterlife, and the immortality of deities, and shows how this underlies all of the major world religions, uniting them under one common source.
Yıl:
2012
Baskı:
1st
Yayımcı:
Free Press
Dil:
english
Sayfalar:
302
ISBN 10:
1439196540
ISBN 13:
9781439196540
Dosya:
EPUB, 743 KB
IPFS:
,
english, 2012