Where do gods come from - and why do people keep them around? Supernatural agent conceptions are born in human minds (and borne in human groups) as a result of evolved cognitive and coalitional biases that over-detect human-like forms in nature and over-protect ingroup-favoring norms in society. While religious reproduction helped our ancestors survive in the Upper Paleolithic, these biases all too easily reinforce superstitious beliefs and violent behaviors that are no longer adaptive in our pluralistic, ecologically fragile, global environment.

Professor Jamie Reilly, Temple University, will discuss research on learning in Alzheimer's patients and related work using transcranial direct current stimulation in healthy young adults.
For more information on Professor Reilly, click here...