Contents
Religion Explained has nine chapters:
- What is the Origin?
- What Supernatural Concepts are Like
- The Kind of Mind it Takes
- Why Gods and Spirits?
- Why Do Gods and Spirits Matter?
- Why is Religion about Death?
- Why Rituals?
- Why Doctrines, Exclusion and Violence?
- Why Belief?
The first, third, and last chapters contain summaries that Boyer calls "Progress Boxes". For instance,
Progress Box 4: Religion and Reasoning
- The sleep of reason is no explanation for religion as it is. There are many possible unsupported claims and only a few religious themes.
- Belief is not just passive acceptance of what others say. People relax their standards because some thoughts become plausible, not the other way around.
- A different angle: We should understand what makes human minds so selective in what supernatural claims they find plausible.
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