God in the Brain: The Neurology of Religious Cognition

In this chapter I address neurological plausibility, which refers to the CSR’s ability to describe and explain the neural correlates of religious cognition. However, the neural correlates of general cognition have not yet been established, and the prospect of isolating religious cognition remains a distant objective. Religious cognition involves a vast range of different forms of ‘ordinary’ cognition. I have already laboured the CSR point that religious cognition is ‘parasitic’ upon ordinary cognition. As a result, the neural correlates of religious cognition cannot be specified until every (at least) major kind of cognition is mapped. And yet, the neural underpinnings of religious cognition form a key element in the CSR’s future performance because its propositions and predictions need to correspond with neural architecture and activity. The evaluation of neurological plausibility therefore seems problematic. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.