ABSTRACT
Whilst children’s scientific theories (e.g., physics, biology, psychology) have elicited much recent research, it has been tentatively suggested that some non-scientific theories (e.g., ethics, mathematics, music) may also emerge in early cognitive development. Importantly, a number of scholars have ruled out religion or theology as a theoretical domain in human cognition. Chapter 3 questions the basis for this exclusion. It begins by re-stating the already existing and widely accepted psychological criteria for having a theory and argues that theology meets each of those criteria. The proposal that theology is one of the early theoretical domains in human cognition is developed fully in Chapter 7, following a closer look at the evidence obtained from children and adults in the three empirical chapters (4, 5 and 6), each of which addresses a component of natural-theological understanding investigated in the volume: ontological, cosmological and theological, respectively.
