Religion

==== Cognitive science ====
{{Main|Cognitive science of religion}}
{{Further|Religion and schizophrenia}}
Cognitive science of religion is the study of religious thought and behavior from the perspective of the cognitive and evolutionary sciences.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=Justin L. |title=Cognitive Science of Religion: What Is It and Why Is It? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00042.x |journal=Religion Compass |access-date=10 January 2021 |pages=768–786 |language=en |doi=10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00042.x |date=2007 |volume=1 |issue=6 |archive-date=12 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112011855/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00042.x |url-status=live }}</ref> The field employs methods and theories from a very broad range of disciplines, including: [[cognitive psychology]], [[evolutionary psychology]], [[cognitive anthropology]], [[artificial intelligence]], [[cognitive neuroscience]], [[neurobiology]], [[zoology]], and [[ethology]]. Scholars in this field seek to explain how human minds acquire, generate, and transmit religious thoughts, practices, and schemas by means of ordinary cognitive capacities.

[[Hallucination]]s and [[Religious delusion|delusions related to religious content]] occurs in about 60% of people with [[schizophrenia]]. While this number varies across cultures, this had led to theories about a number of influential religious phenomena and possible relation to psychotic disorders. A number of prophetic experiences are consistent with psychotic symptoms, although retrospective diagnoses are practically impossible.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Nicholson|first1=PT|title=Psychosis and paroxysmal visions in the lives of the founders of world religions.|journal=The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences|volume=26|issue=1|date=2014|pages=E13–14|doi=10.1176/appi.neuropsych.12120412|pmid=24515692}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Murray|first1=ED|last2=Cunningham|first2=MG|last3=Price|first3=BH|title=The role of psychotic disorders in religious history considered.|journal=The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences|volume=24|issue=4|date=2012|pages=410–426|doi=10.1176/appi.neuropsych.11090214|pmid=23224447}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Weber|first1=SR|last2=Pargament|first2=KI|title=The role of religion and spirituality in mental health.|journal=Current Opinion in Psychiatry|date=September 2014|volume=27|issue=5|pages=358–363|doi=10.1097/YCO.0000000000000080|pmid=25046080|s2cid=9075314}}</ref> Schizophrenic episodes are also experienced by people who do not have belief in gods.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Reina|first1=Aaron|title=Faith Within Atheism|journal=Schizophrenia Bulletin|date=July 2014|volume=40|issue=4|pages=719–720|doi=10.1093/schbul/sbt076|pmid=23760918|pmc=4059423}}</ref>

Religious content is also common in [[temporal lobe epilepsy]], and [[obsessive–compulsive disorder]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Favazza|first1=A|editor1-last=Sadock|editor1-first=B|editor2-last=Sadock|editor2-first=V|editor3-last=Ruiz|editor3-first=P|title=Kaplan and Sadocks Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry|publisher=Wolters Kluwer|edition=10th|chapter=Psychiatry and Spirituality}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Altschuler|first1=EL|title=Temporal lobe epilepsy in the priestly source of the Pentateuch|journal=South African Medical Journal|date=2004|volume=11|issue=94|page=870|pmid=15587438}}</ref> Atheistic content is also found to be common with temporal lobe epilepsy.<ref name="Heilman">{{cite book|last1=Heilman|first1=Kenneth M.|last2=Valenstein|first2=Edward |title=Clinical Neuropsychology|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|isbn=978-0-19-538487-1|page=488|quote=Studies that claim to show no difference in emotional makeup between temporal lobe and other epileptic patients (Guerrant et al., 1962; Stevens, 1966) have been reinterpreted (Blumer, 1975) to indicate that there is, in fact, a difference: those with temporal lobe epilepsy are more likely to have more serious forms of emotional disturbance. This typical personality of temporal lobe epileptic patient has been described in roughly similar terms over many years (Blumer & Benson, 1975; Geschwind, 1975, 1977; Blumer, 1999; Devinsky & Schachter, 2009). These patients are said to have a deepening of emotions; they ascribe great significance to commonplace events. This can be manifested as a tendency to take a cosmic view; hyperreligiosity (or intensely professed atheism) is said to be common.}}</ref>