Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

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Index

abortion

Abrahamic religions

God becoming more abstract and

depersonalized in

similarities between

See also Christianity; Islam; Judaism

absolutes

Absolute Unitary Being

academic treatment of religion

accident

Acheulean handaxes

acquired tastes

“actions speak louder than words,”

Acton, Lord

Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of

Religion (Stark and Finke)

acute religion

Adam and Eve

addiction

Addison, Joseph

adoration, God as object of

adultery

advertising

shamanic

truth in

Aesop

After God: The Future of Religion (Cupitt)

agents

in animism

full-access

gods as

self-interest of

spiritual and mythological

agnosticism

agriculture

AIDS

Ainslie, George

Akshardham temple

alarm calls

Albright, Carol Rausch

alcohol

addiction to

children and

evolution of desire for

Muslim attitude toward

Prohibition

variation in ability to metabolize

Alcoholics Anonymous

Algeria

Alhambra

Allah

allegiance to sports teams

Almighty, the

alphabets

Al Qaeda

altricial species

altruism

American Religious Identification Survey

(ARIS)

amnestics

ancestors

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Andersen, Hans Christian

animals

alarm calls of

alcohol consumed by

cruelty to

domesticated

fantasy lacking in

genetic imperatives governing

laboratory

traditions of

See also birds; insects; mammals

animate motion

animism

anomalies, counterintuitive

Anselm, Saint

anthrax

Anthropic Principle

Anthropologist on Mars, An (Sacks)

anthropology

as about behavior, not belief

divisions in

informants as not always expert

relativism in

in science studies

subjects affected by

unenviable reputation of

anthropomorphism

as appealing

and arguments for existence of God

shift from

tension with other attributes

antiglobalist terrorism

anti-Semitism

ants

colonies

Dicrocelium dendriticum parasitizing

“anything goes,”

Apartheid

apes

curiosity of

fantasy lacking in

groups of

as threatened with extinction

See also chimpanzees

apologetics

apophaticism

apostasy

architecture, religious

Argument from Design

Argument from Evil

arguments for existence of God

ARIS (American Religious Identification

Survey)

armed forces, religious fanatics as most reliable in

arms races

Armstrong, Karen

Armstrong, Louis

arrows, invulnerability to

art

artifice in

as making the familiar strange

religious

why other species don’t have

See also music

artifice, recognizing

Artificial Life

artificial self-replicators

Ashbrook, James B.

Asians

astrology

astronomy

Aswan Dam

atheism, atheists

and attitude toward the sacred

avoiding complicity in religion

“believers” as not

believing in belief in God

as bright

electing atheist to office

examination welcomed by

as lacking values

and moral commitment

about most gods

pre-emptive disqualification of

reading Bible as literature in

sacred values in

of scholars of religion

on scientific research on religion

of Spinoza

Spong associated with

atomism

atoms, knowledge of

Atran, Scott

attention, as limited

attractive nuisance doctrine

Auden, W. H.

Aum Shinrikyo

au naturel

autism

Avital, Eytan

awe

ax, cutting edge of

Â

baby face

Bach, Johann Sebastian

Baghwan

Baker Street Irregulars

Bakker, Jim

Baktamans

Baldwin effect

Balkin, J. M.

Barrett, Justin

Barro, Robert J.

Barth, Fredrik

Basque shepherds

bears

beaver dams

“bedside manner,”

beetle box of Wittgenstein

Being

Absolute Unitary

greater than which nothing can be

conceived

Ground of All

belief(s)

belief in

division of doxastic labor

about intentional objects

as intentional stance element

metaphysical

versus opinion

political

professing

regretting

religious belief not always

religious versus secular

in science

in spiritual entities

uniformity of profession of

weak sense of

why what you believe matters

See also faith; skepticism

Bell, Chris

belomancy

Benedict XVI, pope

benign neglect

Benny, Jack

Benson, Herbert

Benson, Robert

Bering, J. M.

bias

and attention-seeking

in study of human phenomena

in survey research

techniques for preventing

Bible

and evolution

as fittest of texts

on God’s existence

as literature

prophecies in

as proving anything

as salable manufactured product

Bierce, Ambrose

bifocals

Big Brother

Bigfoot

biofacts

bio-informatics

biological motion

biology

stickers on textbooks

See also evolutionary biology

birds

distraction displays of

flocking of

leks of

parental care by

runaway sexual selection in

bitmaps

black magic

Blackmore, Susan

Black Muslims

blasphemy

blind spot

blinking

blues, the

bluffing

boatbuilding

Bonaparte, Napoleon