Sorry this is a late announcement! Early-bird registration is extended right up to on-the-day.

Thurs 2nd and Fri 3rd Sept, The Orangery, Goldney Hall, Uni of Bristol.

This conference is jointly organised by the philosophy and psychology depts, and seeks to bring together researchers working on religion as a natural cognitive and cultural phenomenon.

Program below, or for more info and registration go to the following sites:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/birtha/conferences/arts/birtha/conferences/explaining_religion

http://sites.google.com/site/explainingreligion/

Thursday 2nd

9.00 – 9.30 Registration

9.30 – 10.10 Susan Blackmore (Plymouth University) ‘Religions as memes: Does memetics explain anything?’

10.10 – 10.50 Konrad Talmont-Kaminski (UMCS – Lublin) ‘ Dual inheritance explains the distinction between magic and religion as well as their regular co-occurrence’

10.50- 11.30 Coffee

11.30 – 12.10 Paolo Mantovani (Kings College London)

12.10 – 12.50 Discussion

12.50- 2.00 lunch

2.00 – 2.40 Bruce Hood (Bristol University) ‘Duplication Scenarios as a Means of Testing Children’s Intuitions about Haecceity & Quiddity’

2.40 – 3.20 Ryan McKay (Oxford University)

3.20 – 4.00 Coffee

4.00- 4.40 Deb Kelemen (Boston University)

4.30 – 5.20 Discussion

Friday 3rd

9.30- 10.10 Christine Mohr (Bristol University)

10.10 – 10.50 Michael Blume (HeidelbergUniversity)

10.50 – 11.30 Coffee

11.30 – 12.10 Ara Norenzayen (Universityof British Columbia)

12.10 – 12.50 Discussion

12.50 – 2.00 Lunch

2.00 – 2.40 Jesse Bering (Queens University Belfast)

2.40 – 3.20 Robert McCauley (Emory University) ‘Taking a Cognitive Point of View:

Religions as Rube Goldberg Devices’

3.20 – 4.00 Coffee

4.00-4.40 E.T. Lawson (West Michigan, Queens UniversityBelfast) ‘How to Create a Religion: or What it takes to explain and therefore understand a religion:  Toward an integrated Behavioural Science’

4.40 – 5.20 Discussion