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Year 8

Cognitive science of religion

I can describe how religious ideas are widespread across cultures and times and explain why the human mind may be likely to accept them.

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New
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Year 8

Cognitive science of religion

I can describe how religious ideas are widespread across cultures and times and explain why the human mind may be likely to accept them.

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Share activities with pupils
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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Psychologists study the mind and behaviours.
  2. Religious ideas are widespread across cultures and times.
  3. The human mind seems to be programmed to accept religious ideas.
  4. Evolution may have played a part in this programming.

Keywords

  • Psychology - the scientific study of the mind and behaviour

  • Agent detection - when an animal or human assumes another being is causing a natural event

  • Cognitive science - the scientific study of how the mind works, functions and behaves

  • Supernatural - something that exists beyond the laws of nature

  • Superstition - a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences such as good and bad luck being caused by behaviours

Common misconception

That psychological explanations for religion mean there is no "God" or a Higher Power.

Psychological explanations can support faith as they can show how "God" or a Higher Power has designed the brain to believe.


To help you plan your year 8 religious education lesson on: Cognitive science of religion, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Examples can be given from a wider range of cultures to show how common religous ideas are across history and geography.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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Starter quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which term means 'facts or information that support an idea'?
assumption
claim
Correct answer: evidence
belief
opinion
Q2.
Which term is used in religious education to refer to a person's way of understanding, experiencing and responding to the world?
religion
scripture
Correct answer: worldview
Q3.
Which term means an acceptance that something is true without needing to have proof?
Correct answer: belief
concept
doubt
evidence
theory
Q4.
Which prophet was the Torah given to?
Abraham
Isaiah
Noah
Correct answer: Moses
Q5.
Which part of the human body is in charge of processing information and thoughts?
bladder
Correct answer: brain
heart
kidney
lung
Q6.
Which term describes the process by which living things develop and change over time and generations?
adaptation
diversification
Correct answer: evolution
extinction

Exit quiz

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6 Questions

Q1.
Put these events into the correct historical order.
1 - Venus states are worshipped.
2 - The pyramids are built.
3 - The Torah is revealed to Moses.
Q2.
Which statement is the most accurate?
Religious ideas have only been around for the last 4000 years.
Religious ideas are only found in some countries in the world.
Correct answer: Religious ideas have been found in every culture across the world.
Someone has to be part of a religion to accept religious ideas.
Q3.
Which term is a social science which studies the mind?
philosophy
Correct answer: psychology
sociology
Q4.
When we think there is a being that has caused an event to happen it can be known as agent ...
Correct Answer: detection
Q5.
Which term means a widely held but irrational belief in supernatural influences such as good and bad luck being caused by behaviours?
coincidence
logic
science
Correct answer: superstition
Q6.
Which statements could describe how evolution could link to religious ideas?
Humans have evolved to eat fruit and vegetables.
Correct answer: Humans have evolved to see order and design in the natural world.
Correct answer: Humans have evolved to assume there is a being or force behind natural events.
Humans have evolved to run upright for hunting animals.