Where God and science meet: how brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion/ edited by Patrick McNamara.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

v. 1. Evolution, genes, and the religious brain -- v. 2. The neurology of religious experience -- v. 3. The psychology of religious experience.

Contents of v. 1: The evolutionary psychology of religion / Steven Pinker -- Sacred emotions and affective neuroscience : gratitude, costly signaling, and the brain / Robert A. Emmons and Patrick McNamara -- Genetic and environmental influences on the traditional moral values triad--authoritarianism, conservatism, and religiousness--as assessed by quantitative behavior genetics methods / Laura B. Koenig and Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. -- Religious behaviors, badges, and bans : signaling theory and the evolution of religion / Richard Sosis -- Nature's medicine : religiosity as an adaptation for health and cooperation / Joseph Bulbulia -- The cognitive psychology of belief in the supernatural / Jesse M. Bering -- The ritual healing theory : therapeutic suggestion and the origin of religion / James McClenon -- Religion is not an adaptation / Lee A. Kirkpatrick -- The cognitive and evolutionary roots of religion / Scott Atran -- Amazing grace : religion and the evolution of the human mind / Ilkka Pyysiäinen -- The significance of the evolution of religious belief and behavior for religious studies and theology / Wesley J. Wildman.

Contents of v. 2: The chemistry of religiosity : evidence from patients with Parkinson's disease / Patrick McNamara ... [et al.] -- Religious and spiritual practices : a neurochemical perspective / Andrew B. Newberg -- Neuroimaging studies of religious experience : a critical review / Nina P. Azari -- Religion and the life course : is adolescence and "experience expectant" period for religious transmission? / Candace S. Alcorta -- Neurotheology : a science of what? / Matthew Ratcliffe -- Religion as a by-product of evolved psychology : the case of attachment and implications for brain and religion research / Pehr Granquist -- Religious conversion, spiritual transformation, and the neurocognition of meaning making / Raymond E. Paloutzian, Erica L. Swenson, and Patrick McNamara -- Religion and the brain : evidence from temporal lobe epilepsy / Steven C. Schachter -- The frontal lobes and the evolution of cooperation and religion / Patrick McNamara -- Mind design and the capacity for ritual performance / Carl Seaquist -- The brain, religion, and baseball : comments on the potential for a neurology of religion and religious experience / Warren S. Brown.

Contents of v. 3: The neuropharmacology of religious experience : hallucinogens and the experience of the divine / David E. Nichols and Benjamin R. Chemel -- The relationship between religion and health / Andrew B. Newberg and Bruce Y. Lee -- Religion, meaning, and the brain / Crystal L. Park and Patrick McNamara -- The darker side of religion : risk factors for poorer health and well-being / Gina Magyar-Russell and Kenneth Pargament -- The common core thesis in the study of mysticism / Ralph W. Hood, Jr. -- Cross-cultural assessments of shamanism as a biogenetic foundation for religion / Michael Winkelman -- Schizophrenia, neurology, and religion : what can psychosis teach us about the evolutionary role of religion? / Steven A. Rogers and Raymond F. Paloutzian -- Between yang and yin and heaven and hell : untangling the complex relationship between religion and intolerance / Ian Hansen and Ara Norenzayan -- The origins of dreaming / Kelly Bulkeley -- Chemical input, religious output : entheogens : a pharmatheology sampler / Thomas B. Roberts -- An illusion of the future : temptations and possibilities / Keith G. Meador.