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Title: Evolution of Religious Beliefs

Abstract

Humans may be distinguished from all other animals in having beliefs about the causal interaction of physical objects. Causal beliefs are a developmental primitive in human children; animals, by contrast, have very few causal beliefs. The origin of human causal beliefs comes from the evolutionary advantage it gave in relation to complex tool making and use. Causal beliefs gave rise religion and mystical thinking as our ancestors wanted to know the causes of events that affected their lives.

Publication Date:
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1026346
Resource Type:
Multimedia
Country of Publication:
CERN
Language:
English
Subject:
RELIGION; BELIEFS; CONFABULATION; CASUAL BELIEFS

Citation Formats

. Evolution of Religious Beliefs. CERN: N. p., 2009. Web.
. Evolution of Religious Beliefs. CERN.
. Thu . "Evolution of Religious Beliefs". CERN. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1026346.
@article{osti_1026346,
title = {Evolution of Religious Beliefs},
author = {},
abstractNote = {Humans may be distinguished from all other animals in having beliefs about the causal interaction of physical objects. Causal beliefs are a developmental primitive in human children; animals, by contrast, have very few causal beliefs. The origin of human causal beliefs comes from the evolutionary advantage it gave in relation to complex tool making and use. Causal beliefs gave rise religion and mystical thinking as our ancestors wanted to know the causes of events that affected their lives.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {CERN},
year = {Thu Aug 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009},
month = {Thu Aug 13 00:00:00 EDT 2009}
}

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