Exploring the book 'Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity'

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Dr. Neil Van Leeuwen is Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Philosophy at the Neuroscience Institute at Georgia State University. His research focuses on the question of what belief is. His approach involves contrasting belief with imagining and other cognitive attitudes. Accordingly, he also focuses on several topics having to do with imagination, like pretend play, mental imagery, the role of imagination in guiding action generally. His interest in belief and other cognitive attitudes also manifests itself in research on related topics like self-deception and religious credence (and how religious credence differs from factual belief). He is the author of Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity.

In this episode, we focus on Religion as Make-Believe. We talk about religious credence, and how it differs from factual belief. We discuss whether religious people treat religious beliefs as factual beliefs. We talk about make-believe play, and its features and psychological effects. We discuss the relationship between imagining and religious credence. We talk about sacred values. We discuss whether religion is irrational. Finally, we discuss whether this framework applies to all religions, and the future of the study of religion.

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