During the second week of August, we were visited by Dr. Justin Barrett (Fuller Theological Seminary). Justin Barrett is known as one of the founders of the discipline of "Cognitive Science of Religion," which seeks to understand humanity's relationship with God using cognitive science. His current research focuses on exploring human openness to God in different cultures, ultimately to determine whether it is a natural human condition. Dr. Barrett is Dean of Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as coordinator of the Office for Science, Theology, and Religion Initiatives.

From August 13 to 16, Dr. Barrett led the seminar “Cognitive Science of Religion” (CSR) as part of the Humanities Studies Program. Approximately 12 university professors and academics, as well as external participants, attended. He addressed various topics exploring the ultimate causes that enable human religious experience. On the first day, he defined CSR as an interdisciplinary field of study that seeks to understand the causes of religious beliefs. He then proposed that religious ideas, which are widely recurrent at the epistemological and social levels, become a cultural phenomenon. In the following session, he empirically demonstrated that humans are predisposed to detect supernatural agency “from birth,” as we possess an innate sense of divinity that influences how we recognize supernatural agency in the world. On the closing day, the speaker presented some objections to the concept of God, which maintains that God is a product of the brain. These are not empirically grounded, since our natural inclination to accept ideas about God and supernatural agency in the world is widely recurrent in every culture.

Thank you, Dr. Barrett, for your visit!