Essential Readings in the Cognitive Science of Religion
1. 
Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought
by:
Pascal Boyer
3.98 avg rating — 2,408 ratings 2. 
The Evolution of Gods: The Scientific Origin of Divinity And Religions
by:
Ajay Kansal
3.70 avg rating — 295 ratings 3. 
Supernatural Agents: Why We Believe in Souls, Gods, and Buddhas
by:
Ilkka Pyysiäinen
4.40 avg rating — 15 ratings 4. 
The Belief Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny, and the Meaning of Life
by:
Jesse Bering
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,325 ratings 5. 
In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion (Evolution and Cognition)
by:
Scott Atran
3.96 avg rating — 316 ratings 6. 
8. 
Magic, Miracles, and Religion: A Scientist's Perspective
by:
Ilkka Pyysiäinen
4.36 avg rating — 11 ratings 
10. 
Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs 3.90 avg rating — 120 ratings
11. 
How Religion Works: Towards a New Cognitive Science of Religion
by:
Ilkka Pyysiäinen
4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings 12. 
Theological Incorrectness: Why Religious People Believe What They Shouldn't
by:
D. Jason Slone
3.79 avg rating — 66 ratings 
14. 
Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict
by:
Ara Norenzayan
4.02 avg rating — 384 ratings 
16. 
The Roots of Religion: Exploring the Cognitive Science of Religion (Ashgate Science and Religion Series)
by:
Roger Trigg
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 5 ratings 17. 
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion
by:
Jonathan Haidt
4.20 avg rating — 63,333 ratings 
19. 
21. 
26. 
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures
by:
Nicholas Wade
3.73 avg rating — 686 ratings 
28. 
You Got To Be Kidding: The Cultural Arsonist's Literal Reading of the Bible
by:
Joe Wenke
3.83 avg rating — 181 ratings 29. 
God Without Religion: Questioning Centuries Of Accepted Truths
by:
Sankara Saranam
3.79 avg rating — 114 ratings 30. 
30. 
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
by:
Joshua D. Greene
4.02 avg rating — 3,255 ratings 32. 
The Evolution of Human Intellect: Discover the Information that Schools and Religions Aren't Yet Teaching
by:
L.N. Smith
3.24 avg rating — 109 ratings 32. 
Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology: From Human Minds to Divine Minds (Templeton Science and Religion Series) 3.95 avg rating — 57 ratings
34. 
Imagining the Impossible: Magical, Scientific, and Religious Thinking in Children 3.71 avg rating — 7 ratings
34. 
The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life
by:
Sheldon Solomon
4.11 avg rating — 1,824 ratings 36. 
How the Bible Works: An Anthropological Study of Evangelical Biblicism
by:
Brian Malley
3.84 avg rating — 37 ratings 36. 
39. 
In the Name of God: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Ethics and Violence
by:
John Teehan
3.93 avg rating — 28 ratings 
42. 
The Varieties of Religious Experience
by:
William James
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 12,770 ratings 
42. 
Skeptics and True Believers: The Exhilarating Connection Between Science and Spirituality
by:
Chet Raymo
3.63 avg rating — 254 ratings 
42. 
Psyche and Eros: Baha'i Studies in a Spiritual Psychology
by:
Rhett Diessner
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings 42. 
Cultural Evolution: People's Motivations are Changing, and Reshaping the World
by:
Ronald Inglehart
3.88 avg rating — 110 ratings 
42. 
THE EGO PILL: Why Self-Importance Nourishes US, Only to Devour Us Later
by:
Ramzi Najjar
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 
52. 
A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
by:
Karen Armstrong
3.89 avg rating — 51,739 ratings 
52. 
A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit
by:
Alan Lightman
3.81 avg rating — 655 ratings 52. 
The Psychology of Spirituality: From Divided Self to Integrated Self
by:
H.B. Danesh
4.15 avg rating — 13 ratings 52. 
Religion's Sudden Decline: What's Causing it, and What Comes Next?
by:
Ronald Inglehart
3.77 avg rating — 75 ratings 52. 
Extreme Religious Behaviours: Where Religious Practice and Biological Evolution Clash (Religion and Reason Book 70) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
59. 
59. 
Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False
by:
Thomas Nagel
3.59 avg rating — 1,982 ratings 59. 
The Reality of Man: Excerpts From The Writings Of Baha'u'llah And Abdu'l-Baha
by:
Terry Cassiday
4.67 avg rating — 42 ratings 
65. 
Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists
by:
Kevin R. Grazier
3.90 avg rating — 176 ratings 66. 
Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions
by:
Walter Burkert
3.71 avg rating — 130 ratings 66. 
68. 
Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion
by:
Robert A. Hinde
3.52 avg rating — 27 ratings 69. 
Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human
by:
Paul Bloom
3.90 avg rating — 305 ratings 70. 
Caveman Logic: The Persistence of Primitive Thinking in a Modern World
by:
Hank Davis
3.88 avg rating — 115 ratings 
72. 
A Cognitive Theory of Magic (Cognitive Science of Religion Series)
by:
Jesper Sorensen
3.91 avg rating — 11 ratings 72. 
Deadly Powers: Animal Predators and the Mythic Imagination
by:
Paul A. Trout
3.81 avg rating — 31 ratings 72. 
Imagining the Cognitive Science of Religion: Magic Bullets, Complex Theories, Experimental Adventures
by:
E. Thomas Lawson
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating 75. 
Our Political Nature: The Evolutionary Origins of What Divides Us
by:
Avi Tuschman
4.20 avg rating — 280 ratings 
78. 
79. 
Understanding Moral Sentiments: Darwinian Perspectives?
by:
Hilary Putnam
4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings 79. 
Religion Explained?: The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-five Years
by:
Luther H. Martin
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings 81. 
Kabbalah: A Neurocognitive Approach to Mystical Experiences
by:
Shahar Arzy
3.60 avg rating — 10 ratings 82. 
The Divine Archetype: The Sociobiology and Psychology of Religion
by:
Brant Wenegrat
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating 82. 
The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion
by:
James R. Liddle
2.67 avg rating — 3 ratings 84. 
The Ritual Animal: Imitation and Cohesion in the Evolution of Social Complexity 4.10 avg rating — 20 ratings
88. 
89. 
91. 
Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms 3.92 avg rating — 12 ratings
92. 
Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (Columbia Series in Science and Religion)
by:
B. Alan Wallace
3.70 avg rating — 123 ratings 93. 
Why We Believe in God(s): A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith 3.94 avg rating — 1,338 ratings
93. 
Big Dreams: The Science of Dreaming and the Origins of Religion
by:
Kelly Bulkeley
4.14 avg rating — 28 ratings 
96. 
The Mind Possessed: The Cognition of Spirit Possession in an Afro-Brazilian Religious Tradition
by:
Emma Cohen
3.75 avg rating — 8 ratings 97. 
The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science
by:
Steven Mithen
4.01 avg rating — 522 ratings 98. 
Mind and Religion: Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religion 4.36 avg rating — 11 ratings
100. 
Imagining the Cognitive Science of Religion: Magic Bullets, Complex Theories, Experimental Adventures
by:
E. Thomas Lawson
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings