Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780195335613)

Why do religious people believe what they shouldn't -- not what others think they shouldn't believe, but things that don't accord with their own avowed religious beliefs? D. Jason Slone terms this phenomenon "theological incorrectness." He argues that it exists because the mind is built in such a way that it's natural for us to think divergent thoughts simultaneously. Human minds are great at coming up with innovative ideas that help them make sense of the world, he says, but those ideas do not always jibe with official religious beliefs. From this fact we derive the important lesson that what we learn from our environment -- religious ideas, for example -- does not necessarily cause us to behave in ways consistent with that knowledge. Slone presents the latest discoveries from the cognitive science of religion and shows how they help us to understand exactly why it is that religious people do and think things that they shouldn't.

Author: Jason Slone
ISBN-10: 0195335619
ISBN-13: 9780195335613
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 12/03/2007
Pages: 176
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.46lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.74w x 0.51d