How fear and anxiety leads to more religion – a presentation

On Saturday I gave a presentation in Bournemouth to the Dorset Humanists, on the topic ‘Fear and God’. In the talk I review many of the studies I’ve covered on this blog, looking at how and why fear and anxiety provoke religious responses, and the link between unstable and dangerous societies with greater levels of religion. I also look at some of the consequences of the anxiolytic effects of religion on behaviour.

The talk is aimed at a general, non-scientific audience (although it does cover a lot of science), so if you’re looking for an easy to digest introduction to this topic, then you might find this interesting! The talk itself runs for 50 minutes, with another 20 minutes of questions at the end.

This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.