UO Today

Pascal Boyer, the Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University in St. Louis, discusses how the organization of the human mind influences culture, specificaly how religion is acquired and communicated. He gave a lecture entitled "Mental Instincts and Their Effects on Religious Thought and Behavior" at the UO on February 17, 2010.
UO Today, the Oregon Humanities Center's half-hour television interview program, provides a glimpse into the heart of the University of Oregon. Each episode offers viewers a conversation with UO faculty and administrators as well as visiting scholars, authors, and artists whose groundbreaking work is shaping our world.

[@commandermudpie]

Outstanding. Loved "Religion Explained"! One of my favorite books.

[@ThisSentenceIsFalse]

Just started reading his book "Religion Explained". The title seemed audacious but it's been deserving of the title so far. I've read alot and this might turn out to be the best book on religion I've read so far.

[@princessboris]

thanks for sharing

[@zoetic12]

skip the introduction 2:36

[@myopenmind527]

Excellent account of why people believe in supernatural explanations of the world.
Atheism is not so much a hard position to sell, it is the default position and easy to understand once the spell of religious belief is broken. (I'm speaking metaphorically).

[@EdwardK1989]

So is this a book for atheist?

[@user-nw6qp1ki2n]

Well .. I have just finished reading his book (Minds make Societies).
Frankly (and please pardon me for what I’m gonna say) regardless of the scientific and social field it is discussing, the book was horribly DULL, and nothing paralleled to it dullness except the vague, ineloquent and ultra-complex manner with which it was unfortunately and ambiguously written.
Sorry to say that. Anyway, I could easily conclude after reading it : To be an academic is an issue, and to be a ‘Writer’ is a totally different issue.
I am not claiming that the author is pseudo-thinker, but I do insist that he should have hired someone else to interpret his ideas and thoughts in a “readable” way at least.
It was not a book. It was an undigested burden !
You could clearly sense that the author is afraid to put his ideas directly. He was hiding behind those intricate, complex, open-ended slogans and needless expressions.