Recent Publications
Books:
Rossano, M. J. (2015). Seeking perfection: A modern dialogue about the mind, the soul, and what it means to be human. Piscataway, N. J.: Transaction Publishers. more info
Rossano, M.J. (2013) Mortal rituals: What the story
of the Andes survivors tells us about human evolution. New York: Columbia University Press. more info
Rossano, M.J. (2010). Supernatural
selection: How religion evolved. New York: Oxford
University Press. more info
new
scientist review other
reviews
Rossano, M.J. (2002). Evolutionary Psychology: The Science of Human Behavior and Evolution. New York: John Wiley & Sons for more see
Book chapters:
Rossano, M. J. & Vandewalle, B.
(2016). Belief, ritual, and the evolution of religion. In J.
R. Liddle & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), The Oxford
Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology and Religion (pp.
xx-xx). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pdf
available
Rossano, M.J. (2015). Sound and fury
signifying nothing. In L. H. Martin & D. Wiebe (Eds.). Conversations
and controversies in the scientific study of religion (pp.
163-168). Boston: Brill. pdf
Rossano, M.J. (2011). Setting our own
terms: How we used ritual to become human. In H. Walach, S.
Schmidt, & W. B. Jonas (Eds.). Neuroscience, consciousness and spirituality (pp.
39-56). New York: Springer. pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2010). Harnessing the
placebo effect: Religion as a cultural adaptation. In U. Frey
(Ed.), The nature of God:
Evolution and religion (pp. 111-128). Berlin:
Tectum-Verlag. pdf
available
Rossano, M.J. (2009). The archaeology of consciousness. In S. de Beaune, F. L. Coolidge, & T. Wynn (Eds.), Cognitive archaeology and human evolution (pp. 25-36). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2009). The African Interregnum: The ‘where,’ ‘when,’ and ‘why,’ of the evolution of religion. In E. Voland & W. Schiefenhövel (Eds.) The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behaviour (pp. 127-141). Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pdf available
Articles:
Rossano, M.J. (2010). Making friends, making tools, and making symbols. Current Anthropology, 51, S89-S98 (special issue on working memory:
beyond language and
symbolism) page proofs
available
Rossano, M.J. (2009). Ritual behaviour and the origins of modern cognition. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19, 243–56 pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2008). The moral faculty: Does religion promote 'moral expertise?' The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 18, 169-194 pdf avialable.
Rossano, M.J. (2007c). Supernaturalizing social life: Religion and the evolution of human cooperation. Human Nature 18, 272-294. pdf of proofs available
Rossano, M.J. (2007b). On not leaving your brain at the church house door: Religion on which the devout and skeptic can agree. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science. 42, 301-315. pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2007a). Did meditating make us human? Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 17, 47-58 pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2006). The religious mind and the evolution of religion. Review of General Psychology. 10, 346-364 pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2005). Pursuing consciousness by studying expertise (invited article). International Journal of Computational Cognition, 3, 1-13. pdf available
Rossano, M.J. (2003). Expertise and the evolution of consciousness. Cognition, 89, 207-236. pdf of page proofs available
Rossano, M.J. (2001). Artificial intelligence, religion, and community concern. Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 36, 57-75. pdf available
Rossano, M. J., West, S.O.,
Robertson, T. J., Wayne, M.C., & Chase, R. B. (1999).
The acquisition of route and survey knowledge from
computer models. Journal of Environmental Psycholgy,
19, 101-115 pdf available
Rossano, M.J. & Reardon, W.P.
(1999). Goal specificity and the acquisition of survey
knowledge. Environment and Behavior, 31, 395-412.
pdf available
Commentaries/Reviews:
Rossano, M. J. (2018). Supernatural beliefs and “functional
psychosis." (Comment on K.J. Flannelly's book Religious
Beliefs, Evolutionary Psychiatry, and Mental Health in America)
Religion, Brain & Behavior, DOI:
10.1080/2153599X.2018.1532451 pdf of author
proofs available.
Rossano, M. J. & LeBlanc, A. (2017). Why add the
supernatural? Comment on essays addressing Hilbert Problems in
the Study of Religion. Religion, Brain and Behavior.
avaiable online:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2016.1249932 pdf available
Rossano, M. J. (2015). Art as materialized and embodied ritual.
Comment on Anthony Lock's Evolution, aesthestics, the
inter-relationship between viewer and artist, and New
Zealandism. ASEBL Journal, 11, 2-55 target article and commentaries
Rossano, M.J. (2014). Sound and fury signifying nothing (comment
on Pro- and assortative-sociality in the formation and
maintenance of religious groups by Luther H. Martin and Donald
Wiebe). Journald for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 2,
1-57 pdf of page proofs
article and comment
Rossano, M.J. (2011). Cognitive control: Social evolution and
emotional regulation. Topics
in Cognitive Science, 3, 238-241. pdf of page proofs available
Rossano, M.J. (2010) Cautiously digging up the mind (Review of
Cognitive Archaeology and
The Rise of Homo Sapiens),
Cambridge Archaeological
Journal, 20, 1-3. pdf of review
Rossano, M.J. (2009). Does biology
matter? Deliberation Knowledge Ethics (Erwagen
Wissen Ethik),
20, 224-225. In response to Foerst,
A. Robots and theology 181-193 pdf article and response (note:
first page blank)
Talk on evolution of ritual and religion, University of
Toronto, 2014
Ritually shaping the
imagination: humanity in four acts
Essay from 52-insights website
How
rituals made humans what they are today
Interview
on "Young Turks" radio show on suicide bombers and book
http://www.youtube.com/tytinterviews
Huffington Post Science & Religion BlogsReligion through the lense of
religionship (originally titled: Imagining John, Yoko,
and religion too)
Religion
is not delusion (orginally titled: Is religion delusional?)
Religion
does not equal war (orginally titled: Gods of war)
St.
Augustine: A role model for intelligent faith (originally
titled: Christians aren't supposed to be stupid)
Would
evidence for God mean the end of both atheism and
Christianity? (originally titled: Evidence of God)
Religion
and the perfection of love
How
the
myth
of
the
flat
earth
dogma
started
a
science
and
religion
war
(originally
titled:
starting
a
war
with
a
flat earth)
The
surprising effect of religious devotion on suicide attacks
(originally titled: dying for the group)
Thomas
Aquinas: Saint of evolutionary psychologists? (originally
titled: Thomas Aquinas evolutionary psychologist?)
Who
is may neighbor? The best and worst of religious morality
Fear
of death, joy of life and the origins of God
Sacred
Brands: Consummerism as modern religion
Why
the birthplace of Jesus matters
Alexander
Hamilton's religion
The
Pope, the environment, and religiously-inspired self-restraint
Jesus
the placebo healer
The
theological
dilemma
raised
by
Medieval
neuroscience
God
and the marketplace
Whom
can
I
trust:
The
role
of religion in sustaining community
Why
was Jesus crucified?
Does
Resurrection
contradict
science?
Can
you
be
good
withough God?
The
Christian
Revolution
How
to
make a strong atheist
The
(lack
of) conflict between science and religion among college
students
Evolution:
Is God just playing dice
Did
secular morality shame religion into condemning slavery?
The
Galileo Affair: Emblematic or exceptional?
Are
infinities more scientific than God?
Should
evolutionists be more self-critical about social Darwinism?
Creationism:
That (not so) old time religion