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Monotheism versus an innate bias towards mentalizing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2016

Fintan John Costello
Fintan John Costello*
Affiliation:
School of Computer Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4Ireland. [email protected]
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Abstract

Norenzayan et al.’s account for the spread of monotheistic “Big God” religions sees these religions originating as by-products of innate cognitive biases. These biases produce polytheistic rather than monotheistic systems, however, and so do not explain the origin of monotheism. Accounts where monotheism arises from polytheism (for political reasons, for example) appear better able to explain the spread of monotheism.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e9
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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References

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