Belief, Habit & Religion
Arts & Ideas28 Kesä 2022

Belief, Habit & Religion

For evolutionary scientists studying religion, it's more fruitful to examine what people do in religious contexts, rather than listen to what they say they believe. There's a new recognition that as well as looking at behaviour, people studying religion must take account of the religious experience of believers. But how do you do that? And what does doing it tell us? Rana Mitter is joined by an evolutionary psychologist, an anthropologist, a historian and a poet to discuss.

Robin Dunbar is an evolutionary psychologist who’s written a book called Why Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures.

Dimitris Xygalatas is an anthropologist whose book is called Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living

Anna Della Subin has investigated people who have been declared divine in her book Accidental Gods

Poet Kaveh Akbar is editor of The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Jaksot(2000)

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Oral tradition and oracy

Oral tradition and oracy

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Taste

Taste

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Women, language & experience

Women, language & experience

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6 Maalis 56min

Authority

Authority

Is authority a justly unfashionable quality that we should consign to the past? Or does it still have a place in political and business leadership, schools, medical settings and in the home? What is t...

27 Helmi 57min

Crime and punishment medieval to modern

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20 Helmi 56min

Working Class Creativity

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From an impoverished neighbourhood in South London, Charlie Chaplin became one of the most significant figures in the development of cinema. More recently, TV writers like Sophie Willan and Michaela C...

13 Helmi 56min

Is Might Right?

Is Might Right?

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6 Helmi 56min

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