Cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief.
We propose an integrative cognitive neuroscience framework for understanding the cognitive and neural foundations of religious belief. Our analysis reveals 3 psychological dimensions of religious belief (God's perceived level of involvement, God's perceived emotion, and doctrinal/experiential religious knowledge), which functional MRI localizes within networks processing Theory of Mind regarding intent and emotion, abstract semantics, and imagery. Our results are unique in demonstrating that specific components of religious belief are mediated by well-known brain networks, and support contemporary psychological theories that ground religious belief within evolutionary adaptive cognitive functions.
Kapogiannis
Dimitrios
D
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/National Institutes of Health, MSC 1440, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1440, Bethesda, MD 20892-1440, USA.
Barbey
Aron K
AK
Su
Michael
M
Zamboni
Giovanna
G
Krueger
Frank
F
Grafman
Jordan
J
D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D012067:Religion