Journal of Hikmat-e-Islami

Journal of Hikmat-e-Islami

Breaking the Spell or a Broken Spell?! (A Critique of Dennett’s Naturalistic Explanation of Religion)

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Hamidreza Shakerin
Professor and Faculty Member of Research Institute for Islamic Culture and Thought.
Abstract
The reason behind religion and its explanation is among the fundamental issues in the philosophy of religion. It shapes various orientations and approaches in the study of religion, such as naturalism versus supernaturalism, religious realism versus anti-realism, and the historicity versus ahistoricity of religion. It also plays a significant role in discussions concerning the future of religion, religious pluralism, and other major approaches in this field. Daniel Clement Dennett, an American physicalist philosopher of mind, neo-Darwinian thinker, and one of the prominent figures of the New Atheism, seeks in his book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon to advance a naturalistic account of religion grounded in Darwinian evolutionary theory. The present article aims, through a descriptive–analytical method, to examine and critically assess his view. The findings reveal numerous deficiencies, inadequacies, and inaccuracies in Dennett’s explanations, demonstrating the failure of the neo-Darwinian perspective to provide a satisfactory account of religion. The study concludes that not only is the portrayal of religion as a “spell” and its presumed vulnerability to neo-Darwinian explanations unjustified, but such explanations themselves amount to spells already broken from the root - lacking scientific credibility and devoid of any final explanatory value.
Keywords
: Daniel Dennett
Philosophy of Religion
Explanation of Religion
Religious Naturalism
Religious Anti-realism
Breaking the Spell
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 26 May 2024
  • Revise Date 03 November 2024
  • Accept Date 29 November 2024