ABSTRACT
Although the essays in this section directly address cosmological questions, most sections of the encyclopedia also at least touch on them in some way. Many authors in the General Overviews and Historical Perspectives sections explore how people synthesize religious and scientific views to prevent conflict or demonstrate consensus. Why we ask cosmological questions in the first place is explored in the sections on Consciousness, Mind, and the Brain; Genetics and Religion; and Ecology, Evolution, and the Natural World. Many issues discussed in Health and Healing and in Death and Dying are rooted in the answers different disciplines and religions have to these fundamental questions.
