Heated debate on cognition and religion in the Guardian

If you like it hot, there has just been a heated exchange at the Guardian webpage, started by Andrew Brown reporting in his blog on a talk by Justin Barrett (whom we are proud to have as a member of this Institute) on the evolved cognitive basis of religion and agreeing with him that “the idea of an omniscient god is one that makes intuitive sense to children.” To this, the philosopher A.C.Grayling retorts that one shouldn’t be surprised that such pro-religion views should come out of research  partly funded by the Templeton Foundation. Justin Barrett objects to the ad hominem attack and points out that Pascal Boyer and Scott Atran (other members of our Institute, known to be atheists) hold similar views. Plus hundreds of comments. A lot of heat, yes, but also some light.