http://analyticalphilosophy.wordpress.com/2011/06/10/daniel-dennett-and-the-scientific-study-of-religion/LOCATION: Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst, New York
DATES: December 2–3, 2011
CONFERENCE THEME
Daniel Dennett’s 2006 book
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon is a bold vision of religion as an entirely natural phenomena, amenable to study by the various social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences. This conference’s theme is the further pursuit of the scientific study of religion, along the major lines elaborated by Dennett together with pioneering research that is presently advancing this important interdisciplinary effort.
Alex's comment: A criticism often heard is that using science to study religion is basically using a wrong method. The answer to this criticism is that there is no hard and fast line to isolate religion from other human psycho-socio-cultural phenomena. As the scientific method is being widely used to study the latter, there is no good reason to prevent religion, as another psycho-socio-cultural phenomenon, from being studied in the same way. Put it in another way, if religion shall not be studied by the scientific method, shall cultural customs not be studied by the scientific method too? More basically,
is it possible to distinguish between religious and non-religious cultural customs?
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