The sanctioning of norm-transgressors is a necessary--though often costly--task for maintaining a well-functioning society. Prior to effective and reliable secular institutions for punishment, large-scale societies depended on individuals engaging in 'altruistic punishment'--bearing the costs of punishment individually, for the benefit of society. Evolutionary approaches to religion suggest tha...

Gods and heroes of Greek myths have been of interest to psychoanalysts, who find them as symbols of human intrapsychic life, evolution, and conflicts. Many of these gods and heroes, like Oedipus, Electra, Eros, and Narcissus, have had their names given to psychological situations, conflicts, and diseases. Freud picked the myth of Narcissus as a symbol of a self-absorbed person whose libido is i...

The splendid mosaic exhibited at the Archeological Museum in Naples presents two enigmatic hybrid images: a feline composed of tiger and lion, figure that combines characteristics both Dionysus Eros.
 This study seeks to decipher hybridization these mighty gods Roman world, Eros, as presented museum mosaic. main assumption is features link gods: madness, illusion merging with Divine. would...

In a recent article, Barrett (2008) argued that a collection of five representational content features can explain both why people believe in God and why people do not believe in Santa Claus or Mickey Mouse. In this model – and within the cognitive science of religion as a whole – it is argued that representational content biases are central to belief. In the present paper, we challenge the not...