#627 Tanya Luhrmann - How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
RECORDED ON FEBRUARY 15th 2022.
Dr. Tanya Marie Luhrmann is the Albert Ray Lang Professor in the Stanford Anthropology Department. She is a medical and psychological anthropologist, and also an anthropologist of religion. More recently she describes her work as an anthropology of mind. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003 and received a John Guggenheim Fellowship award in 2007. Her books include When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, and the most recent one, How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others.
In this episode, we focus on How God Becomes Real. We cover the main hypotheses put forth in the book: people don’t easily have faith in gods and spirits; detailed stories help to make gods and spirits feel real; the way people think about their minds also matters; the sense of response is “kindled”; prayer practice changes the way people attend to their thoughts; talent and training matter; and people create relationships with gods and spirits. We also talk about the role of rituals and religious imagery, the health benefits of religion, comparative phenomenology, an “attentional learning” theory of religion, and the New Atheists.
Time Links:
Intro
Are we biologically predisposed to religion?
Do people easily believe in gods and spirits?
What is “real-making”?
The role of rituals
“Detailed stories help to make gods and spirits feel real”
Do people of the same faith believe in the same gods
Religious imagery
“Talent and training matter”
“The way people think about their minds also matters”
The psychological effects of prayer
Developing a relationship with god
Health effects of religion
Comparative phenomenology
An “attentional learning” theory of religion
Is there a WEIRD problem in the study of religion?
The New Atheists
Follow Dr. Luhrmann’s work!
Follow Dr. Luhrmann’s work:
Faculty page: https://stanford.io/3mNAxdb
Website: https://bit.ly/3ygpJJk
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3v5fQfV
Amazon page: https://amzn.to/3l71qKm
How God Becomes Real: https://amzn.to/3eanRcC