#1045 Will Gervais - Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species

The Dissenter

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Dr. Will Gervais is a Reader in the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. He is a cultural and evolutionary psychologist who studies what people believe about the world. He is curious about a lot things that fall under the cultural/evolutionary psychology umbrella, but he is especially interested in atheists. What do atheists teach us about belief, morality, and what it means to be human? He is the author of Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species.

In this episode, we focus on Disbelief. We talk about the idea of religion and atheism as evolutionary puzzles. We discuss popular misconceptions about religion coming from Marx, Richard Dawkins, and the New Atheists. We talk about different approaches to religion, including the cognitive science of religion, behavioral genetics, and cultural evolution. We discuss what makes religions culturally successful, and the relationship between Big Gods and prosociality. We then talk about atheism, how many atheists are there, different pathways toward atheism, whether atheism is natural, and whether atheists are moral and trustworthy. Finally, we discuss the future of religion and atheism.

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