Religion, Disease, and Immunology

Download or read book Religion, Disease, and Immunology written by Thomas B. Ellis and published by . This book was released on with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book argues that religion has emerged over evolutionary time as a strategy for managing the transmission, contraction, and eradication of infectious disease. From purity and pollution codes to blood sacrifices and irrational beliefs, the book shows how religion supports not only the physiological immune system, but the behavioral and psychological immune systems as well. The book also addresses those moments when it appears that religion becomes maladaptive, that is, religion occasionally causes "autoimmune problems," such as celibacy and anti-vaccination. Engaging material ranging from evolutionary and social psychology to human behavioral ecology, biological anthropology, Darwinian medicine, and religious studies, the book proposes that in order to understand the human animal's enduring fascination with religion, one must take into account the human animal's enduring need to manage infectious disease, that is, the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse."--