Religion as a natural phenomenon
11 March 2005
Daniel C. Dennett, Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Tufts University, USA
In the eighteenth century, many wise and well-informed people anticipated that religion would soon evaporate, as a scientific and secular perspective swept the world. They were wrong. In the twenty-first century, our success in solving the most pressing global problems (of inequity, poverty, environmental degradation, public health, injustice, and so forth) will depend critically on our understanding of the role of religion in people's lives, but religion is still a poorly understood set of phenomena. We must break with tradition and subject religion to intense scrutiny by researchers in many disciplines, from neuroscience and evolutionary biology to psychology, anthropology, economics, and history. Pioneer researchers are beginning to develop testable hypotheses about the reasons why religions evolved and how they continue to hold the allegiance of people. These early results raise important questions that challenge some of the prevailing assumptions about religion that have guided policy in the recent past.