ABSTRACT
The cognitive science of religion is a new approach to the scientific study of religion. Cognitive science is the set of disciplines that investigate the mind-brain processes involved in human thought and behavior. Scholars in the cognitive science of religion explain features of religious thought and behavior that recur across cultures and eras in terms of the mental processes involved in their production and transmission. Religion, along with other forms of culture like music, art, and literature, is understood by cognitive scientists as a natural by-product of the ways our mind-brains function.
