<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Religion has been intensely studied in the last years inside an evolutionary frame, trying to discern to what extent it contributes to fitness or becomes an adaptive entity in its own. A similar heuristic can be tried regarding the opposite tendency: unbelief and atheism, since these cultural phenomena could help to better adapt to some social settings or become an adaptive socio-cultural niche on its own. The present paper examines some scenarios in which that question makes sense: the tradition of sociology of religion, with its different strands, including recent studies on ‘non-religious’; the cognitive; and the philosophical-theological reflection. The proposed venues show to what extent the evolutionary model might reveal neglected aspects in the study of unbelief, and at the same time its limits or the open questions that such application raise.</p></abstract>

Religion has been intensely studied in the last years inside an evolutionary frame, trying to discern to what extent it contributes to fitness or becomes an adaptive entity in its own. A similar heuristic can be tried regarding the opposite tendency: unbelief and atheism, since these cultural phenomena could help to better adapt to some social settings or become an adaptive socio-cultural niche on its own. The present paper examines some scenarios in which that question makes sense: the tradition of sociology of religion, with its different strands, including recent studies on ‘non-religious’; the cognitive; and the philosophical-theological reflection. The proposed venues show to what extent the evolutionary model might reveal neglected aspects in the study of unbelief, and at the same time its limits or the open questions that such application raise.

Atheism and Unbelief: Different Ways to Apply the Evolutionary Framework

Studia Humana

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Atheism and Unbelief: Different Ways to Apply the Evolutionary Framework"}

Religion has been intensely studied in the last years inside an evolutionary frame, trying to discern to what extent it contributes to fitness or becomes an...

Atheism and Unbelief: Different Ways to Apply the Evolutionary Framework

Publicado en línea: 31 dic 2019

Páginas: 7 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2019-0022

Palabras clave
adaptation, niche construction, sociology, secularization, cognition, cultural evolution

© 2019 Lluis Oviedo, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Atheism and Unbelief: Different Ways to Apply the Evolutionary Framework

Publicado en línea: 31 dic 2019

Páginas: 7 - 20

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/sh-2019-0022

Palabras claveadaptation, niche construction, sociology, secularization, cognition, cultural evolution

© 2019 Lluis Oviedo, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Palabras clave
adaptation, niche construction, sociology, secularization, cognition, cultural evolution