DH - Krakow 2004
1
THE BIOLOGICAL THEORY OF RELIGION
A series of Lectures and Workshops given by Dr David Hay-
Institute for the Study of Religion, Krakow, 26-30 April, 2004
David Hay is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the
Department of Divinity and Religious Studies in Aberdeen
University, Scotland
. He is himself a Scotsman and a zoologist by
profession. During his early career he worked in the Religious Experience
Research Unit set up by the late Sir Alister Hardy, formerly professor of
Zoology at Oxford University. After Hardy’s death in 1985 he became director
of the Unit. Subsequently he was appointed Reader in Spiritual Education at
Nottingham University, a post from which he retired in 2000
The hypothesis that has guided his research over the past thirty years is that
religious awareness is biologically natural to the human species and has been
selected for in the process of organic evolution because it has survival value.
Although naturalistic, this hypothesis is not intended to be reductionist with
regard to religion. Nevertheless it does imply that all people, including those
who have no religious belief, have a spiritual life. Accordingly, Hay’s most
recent investigations have been concerned with the spirituality of people who
have no formal religious connections. He has shown that spiritual experience is
extraordinarily widespread in spite of the secular nature of Western European
society. His findings have important implications for an understanding of the
psychology of religion and for the processes of European cultural history.
MORNING SESSIONS
Monday, 26 April
An explanation of the rationale for the structure of the series of classes, followed by a workshop exercise designed to reflect
directly on the praxis of religious or spiritual experience: Religion and Spiritual Experience - a brainstorming exercise.
Tuesday, 27 April
The core biological argument. What are we talking about when we use the terms ‘spiritual’ or ‘religious’ experience’? A
peak experience exercise. Problems faced in gathering and attempting to classify religious experience.
Wednesday, 28 April
Testing the resilience of the Hardy’s hypothesis. Comparisons with American work. Relation of spirituality with ethics.
Sloan Wilson on Group Selection. The problem of plausibility. Another look at hermeneutics.
Thursday, 29 April
Exploring the contemporary spirituality of children and secularised adults. Recent work on neurophysiology.
Friday, 30 April
The Sources of the European suspicion of religious experience. The role of early 20th Century American psychology as a
precursor of the hermeneutics of suspicion. A deconstruction of European secularism.
AFTERNOON SESSIONS
