Explaining Religion. The Nature of Religious Thinking

Where does the desire to believe in higher powers come from? How do religious beliefs arise and why does faith continue to play such an important role in the life of a person in the 21st century? The book by French anthropologist Pascal Boyer describes the phenomenon of religion from the perspective of evolutionary psychology. The underlying principles of beliefs and religious rituals are found in the workings of human consciousness. One after another, he refutes common "theories" of the origin of religion — it arose to explain incomprehensible natural phenomena and personal experiences, it provides comfort, it ensures social order — and reveals to the reader the astonishing features of the structure of our mind.