David Sloan Wilson - Religion and Spirituality in the Context of Everyday Life

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College, Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture: The Evolution of Religion, Morality and Cooperation lecture series. Religion and spirituality are often discussed as "big" philosophical and scientific questions, but they also need to be understood in the context of everyday life. The small city of Binghamton, New York, includes almost 100 religious congregations, along with many non-churchgoers with their own religious/spiritual/secular beliefs. The city can be studied as a "cultural ecosystem" using the same theories and methods that are used to study biological ecosystems. This approach to religion and spirituality can be employed at other geographical locations and provides a new perspective on the "big" philosophical and scientific questions. David Sloan Wilson is Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University.

[@arcanuslosanara2823]

Wilson approaches religion with great care and utmost respect.

[@Jester123ish]

Such a much, much better approach to religion than Richard Dawkin's perspective.

[@NyJazzGuit]

"History is the fossil record of cultural evolution" - great line around 17:00

[@sacredsoma]

I thought so too, but then history records have been read and deciphered prior to fossil study, so when fossils were seen for what they were, I am sure someone must have presented them as "Natures own chronicle of its past histories" ..so the line felt on 2nd reading redundant like a pleonasm

[@damlacay7089]

I love David Sloan Wilson, thanks for sharing.

[@quad9363]

The bit around 39:00 is very fascinating, looking at sacred texts as a cultural gene whose components can be selected for depending upon the necessity of the environment. Quite fascinating.

[@arkofawareness]

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[@OmAr_Kh21.]

Great!

[@modvs1]

So the horizontal and vertical axes are a reference to latent and manifest function respectively?

[@danliu1237]

good idea