Reading Club: In Gods We Trust
December 7, 2005
I've been mentioning doing a reading club on Scott Atran's In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. I know I've not finished up on the last couple of chapters of Tomasello. Partially that's because I misplaced the book. (Although I found it yesterday) Partially because I think most of the things I wanted to say about Tomasello I've said. I'll still have a few posts on Tomasello, hopefully tonight. However my brother has been posting on Atran already and a few others say they are going to begin. So I'll have some posts coming up. This page will be a kind of master table of contents for posts about Atran's books. That way those interested can find relevant posts.
Chris also brought up a good point about the "how" of the reading club. Do we summarize chapters or do we respond in various ways to the chapter. I've done both. However I think Chris' suggestion is a good one. Assume that people have actually read the book and then post various reactions or use the chapter as a kind of starting point for interesting tangents. He writes,
[I will] focus on interesting ideas that the book brings out in my world view. I would like to take about 1 week a section, meaning this should be a month long event. Along the way I will try and summarize my general reactions. So far it has been intriguing. It is just too bad I can only take it in short doses before getting bogged down with tangential ideas and issues.
I'll keep this page updated with new posts that people bring up. Feel free to let me know if I miss any. (Comments are active on this page) Of course people Googling here should know I don't control external links. So they may not be active a year from now.
Mormon Metaphysics
Dec 7, 2005: Some initial thoughts on religion, naturalism and evolutionary
psychology
MoBlo
Dec 5, 2005: Introduction to the book and thoughts on commenting style.
Dec 5, 2005: Expectations in reading the book. Examining possibilities that underlie belief.
Dec 6, 2005: The introduction of IGWT and adaptive traits.
Dec 7, 2005: Keeping personal revelation personal versus the communial role of revelation.
Dec 7, 2005: Commitment theories and the nature of religious knowledge arising in science.
Dec 12, 2005: Is religion sexually selected?
Dec 12, 2005: Causal issues and abstractions.
Dec 13, 2005: Uncertainty and ambiguity.
Dec 14, 2005: Attachment theory explaining
religious tendencies.
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