an introductionalso necessarily revives the theory of evolution for understanding the devel-
opment of religion. Within the context of their evolutionary and mentalist
approach to religion, cognitive theorists of religion think that it is possible
to derive causal explanations for human behavior and ideas within the
human mind. The anthropologist Pascal Boyer thinks, for instance, that reli-
gion is a natural consequence of the evolution of the mind because religious
behavior and ideas survive, are passed down to younger generations, and
naturally fit into intuitive, psychological mental processes. In what he calls
the by-product hypothesis, Boyer states that certain thoughts and actions
survive because they coincide with selected evolutionary features.
From another cognitive scientific perspective, Justin Barrett, another
anthropologist, argues that the brain is a complex organ with specialized
subsystems that all humans have in common regardless of their culture.
These mental subsystems shape internal and external stimuli by con-
straining and informing religious and non-religious thought and behavior.
By focusing on the fundamental and recurrent dynamics of the system of
the mind, a scholar is able to offer predictions and explanations. Along
similar lines of argument, the archaeologist Steven Mithen and anthro-
pologist Robert McCauley think that the structure of the mind accounts
for religious thought and behavior, natural by-products of the mind,
whereas Harvey Whitehouse, a British anthropologist, thinks that only
certain aspects of religion can be called natural because much of religion
is still variable and mysterious.
Whitehouse identifies two different clusters of variables that have a
tendency to be selected in the process of religious transmission. These
two modes of religiosity are imagistic and doctrinal, each are depended
on and constrained by different selective systems of memory. Through
the convergence of analogical precepts and practices, the imagistic mode
is transmitted by means of ritual. It becomes impressed on one’s memory
through heightened emotion, whereas the doctrinal mode of religiosity
represents a codification of knowledge, and becomes a coherent collec-
tion of beliefs, which is transmitted by repetitive instruction and custom-
ary ritual performance.
types Of definitiOns Of religiOn
In summary, definitions of religion manifest five general types: experien-
tial, substantive, functionalist, family resemblance, and postmodern. The
experiential definition attempts to isolate a primary religious experience
and construct a theory around it (Otto’s idea of the holy and cognitive