Science and Religion

People often seem to place science and religion as opposing forces in todays society. Consequently, many have compared the practicing of science to that of religion, however, few have explored the cognitive differences between science and religion. The present work drew a parallel between the cogniton of religion and the dual-process theories of reasoning literature and hypothesized that scientific and religious contexts would elicit different types of processing. Studies included presenting participants with vignettes (scientific or religious) and asking them to reason and recall the material. Results supported the hypothesis that context elicits one type of processing over the other. However, the effect of context was in the opposite direction as hypothesized. Several possible reasons for the reversed trend in the results are discussed including story construction, participants dependence on expert knowledge, and measures of individual differences. Directions for future work are suggested. The book is addressed to professionals in Psychology and related fields with an interest in the cognition of religion, reasoning, and recall.