Cognitive Approaches to the Study of Religion

Cognitive science is an inter-disciplinary approach that applies a set of methods to study the cognitive structures and faculties in human being’s life. These methods pursue the cognitive structures that are needed - in the light of this approach - to represent and acquire the religious concepts and the actions that institutionalize these structures. These goals are pursued through the process of change and evolution that supernatural concepts had been undergone during the historical life of mankind and also during the growth of any individual. In this paper cognitive science of religion is introduced with a general report of cognitive science and considering its philosophical bases and then tries to give an broad outlook to its approach to religion through its sub-disciplines، depending on the role of each of them in constructing the cognitive science of religion; cognitive anthropology and cognitive psychology have the most importance here، comparing to the rest like cognitive neuroscience.