Daniel Dennett, author of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, will discuss the evolutionary origin of the widespread human disposition that tends to express itself as religiousness. While recognizing that this sort of approach leaves the truth of religious beliefs an open question, Dennett regards it as a contribution to the understanding of the tenacity of the human disposition to religiousness. He seeks to "break the spell" of refusal to think of religiousness as a "natural phenomenon" of which an evolutionary explanation is possible.
Annual Philosophy Public Lecture

Hosted  by:  Department of Philosophy

Department of Anthropology, Department of Journalism, Department of Political Science, Department of Psychology, Department of Sociology, Department of Speech Communication, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Philosophy Graduate Student Organization, Program for the Study of Religion, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory

WILL-AM580 FOCUS interview with Daniel Dennett