RT Article
T1 'The Biology of God': What is the Current Status of Hardy's Hypothesis?
JF The international journal for the psychology of religion
VO 4
IS 1
SP 1
OP 23
A1 Hay, David
LA English
YR 1994
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1669630951
AB This review outlines Hardy's hypothesis that religious experience involves a kind of awareness that has evolved through natural selection because of its survival value to the individual. A description is given of attempts to test it in comparison with competing hypotheses about religious experience that derive from Marx, Durkheim, and Freud. The research has brought to light evidence that strengthens the plausibility of Hardy's hypothesis while not supporting the rival explanations. These developments have taken place in a social context where post-Enlightenment, secular models of reality have come to dominate contemporary understanding. It is contended that this historical process has led to a failure on the part of many scientists to attend seriously to the phenomenology of religious experience. This has produced a distorted under- standing and dismissal of what appears to be a widespread and normal field of human experience. The practical implications of this for human welfare, along with recent empirical research in adjacent fields, provide reason for investigating Hardy's thesis more extensively.
DO 10.1207/s15327582ijpr0401_1