Is Religion Natural? The Chinese Challenge

Is Religion Natural? The Chinese Challenge Research in the cognitive science of religion (CSR) suggests that religiosity may be a natural byproduct of human instincts. However, very little CSR research has been done with participants drawn from predominantly secular milieus. Our research project breaks new ground in the study of religious naturalness and Chinese religiosity and presents avenues for future research. two key questions Do the Chinese share core 2 How are these natural psychological characteristics that drive religious belief? tendencies toward religious belief manifested in a largely secular cultural environment? the research 29 studies 13 PhD PhD PhD institutions represented 23 expert contributors UK 5 USA hina countries Singapore Ecuador research types experimental quantitative text analysis ethnography survey developmental studies 24 545 96 experiments ethnography produced World of ancient 3 to 82 WarcraftTM Chinese age range of participants players texts analyzed 15 10,794 59 BCE months spent in the field gamer hours analyzed average age of ancient 400+ texts children participating the investigation continues The Chinese Challenge presents a blueprint for future scholars to continue asking and answering CSR-related questions in the world's largest nation. Full reports of this research are forthcoming as journal articles, books, and book chapters by the scholars who contributed to the project: Drs. Justin Barrett, Ryan Hornbeck, Liqi Zhu, Deborah Kelemen, Melanie Nyhof, Ryan Nichols, Kelly Clark, Justin Winslett, Justin Gregory, and Gang Huangfu. Discover more! Additional project data, visualizations, and analysis are available online at www.thethrivecenter.org. www.thethrivecenter.org ỦTHRIVE center for human development 00