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Day 1: Wednesday, January 3, 2007 — Welcome

5:00pm - 7:00pm	Registration
7:00pm - 7:30pm	Dessert Reception
7:30pm - 8:00pm	Welcome and Introduction by Russell Genet, Cheryl Genet, and Senator Les Ihara
8:00pm - 9:00pm	Inaugural Address by Harvey Whitehouse: Explaining Religion

Day 2: Thursday, January 4, 2007 — Evolutionary Scenarios
We open the conference by considering proposals for the evolution of religion, discussions about whether it is adaptive, and debates over the appropriate level of describing religious adaptations and maladaptions – at the level of individuals, groups, or religious information (memes).

8:15am	Opening Comments: Russell and Cheryl Genet
8:30am - 10:00am	Session I: Evolutionary Scenarios
Armin W. Geertz	From Apes to Devils and Angels: Comparing Scenarios on the Evolution of Religion
E. Thomas Lawson	Cognitive Mechanisms, Religious Practices, and Evolutionary Solutions
William Irons	The Commitment Theory of Religion and Alternative Theories
10:00am - 10:30am	Morning Break
10:30am - 12:30pm	Session II: Whose adaptation? Individuals, Groups, and Cultural Variants
Lee Kirkpatrick	Religion is Not an Adaptation
Peter J. Richerson	Is Religion Adaptive? Yes, No, Neutral, but Mostly We Don’t Know
David Sloan Wilson	Evolution and Religion: Beyond Demonic Memes
Erica Harris & Patrick McNamara	Is Religiousness an Adaptation?
4:00pm - 5:30pm	Session III: Modeling the Evolution of Religion
Donald Braxton	Modeling Altruism in the Presence of the Gods
David Kydd	Supernatural Niche Construction Incubates Brilliance and Governs the Ratchet Effect
Azim F. Shariff	One Species under God? Sorting through the Pieces of Religion and Cooperation
8:00pm - 9:00pm	Evening Talk by Luther Martin: Does Religion Really Evolve (And What Is It Anyway?)

Day 3: Friday, January 5, 2007 — The Biology of Religious Minds
The second day of the conference focuses on the adaptive benefits of supernatural beliefs, commitments and practices. We also consider the application of costly signaling theory and sexual selection theory for understanding the evolution of religion.

8:30am - 10:00am	Session I: In Gods We Trust
Robert Emmons	Gods, Gratitude, and Giving: Beyond Reciprocity
Richard Sosis	Pigeons, Foxholes, and the Book of Psalms: Evolved Superstitious Responses to Cope with Stress and Uncertainty
Dominic Johnson	Gods of War: The Adaptive Logic of Religious Conflict
10:00am - 10:30am	Morning Break
10:30am - 12:00pm	Session II: To Costly Signaling or Not To Costly Signal?
Joseph Bulbulia	The Commitments of Commitment Signalling Theory
Dimitris Xygalatas	Firewalking in Greece: High-Arousal Rituals and Motivation
Montserrat Soler	Commitment Costs and Cooperation: Evidence from Candomblé, an Afro-Brazilian Religion
2:00pm - 4:00pm	Workshop I: New Directions in the Evolutionary Study of Religion in Psychology
Chair:	Joseph Bulbulia
Panelists:	Jesse Bering, Bob Emmons, Gretchen Koch, Uffe Schjødt
Response:	Nicholas Gibson
4:30pm - 6:00pm	Session III: The Bowerbird Hypothesis
Ilkka Pyysiäinen	Sexual Selection for Supernatural Agents?
Jason Slone	The Attraction of Religion: A Sexual Selectionist Account
Andrew Mahoney	Theological Expressions as Costly Signals of Religious Commitment
8:00pm - 9:00pm	Evening Talk by Ann Taves: “Religious Experience” and the Brain

Day 4: Saturday, January 6, 2007 — Empirical and Methodological Research in the Cognitive Study of Religion
The third day of the conference focuses on cognitive, moral, and methodological discussions in the evolutionary study of religion.

8:30am - 10:00am	Session I: Cognition, Hot and Cold
Emma Cohen	Not Myself Today: A Cognitive Account of the Transmission of Spirit Possession Concepts
Adam Cohen, Azim F. Shariff, & Peter C. Hill	An Implicit Measure of Religious Beliefs
Nicholas Gibson	Whither Emotion? Why God May Not Be So Much Comfort after All
10:00am - 10:30am	Morning Break
10:30am - 12:15pm	Session II: For Goodness Sake? Religious Cognition and Morality
Jesse Bering	Is God and “Adaptive Illusion” or “Maladaptive Delusion”?
Jonathan A. Lanman	Are We All “Believers?”
Gretchen Koch	Dualism, Moral Judgment, and Perceptions of Intentionality
Christopher Boehm	The Uses of Supernatural Sanctioning among Hunter Gatherers
2:00pm - 4:00pm	Workshop II: New Directions in the Evolutionary Study of Religion in Anthropology
Chair:	Armin W. Geertz
Panelists:	Stewart Guthrie, David S. Wilson, Pete Richerson, Bill Irons
Response:	Harvey Whitehouse
4:30pm - 6:00pm	Session III: Philosophical and Pragmatic Themes
Taner Edis	Religion: Accident or Design?
Malcolm Dean	Cognition of God: The Theology of Information
Benson Saler	Essentialism and Evolution
8:00pm - 9:00pm	Evening Talk by Dan Dennett: The Domestication of Wild Religions: How Reflection Drove the Adaptations

Day 5: Sunday, January 7, 2007 — Gods in Minds: Transmission, Narrative, Functions
The fourth day of the conference focuses on the transmission of religious concepts and the narratives through which religion is understood. We also look at the function of supernatural concepts and practices through the study of religious brains.

8:30am–10:00am	Session I: Transmission, Memory, Ritual
Kimmo Ketola	Cultural Evolution of Intense Religiosity: The Case of “Sankirtan Fever” in the Hare Krishna Movement
Joel Mort	Salience and Transmission of De-coupled Agent Concepts
Michael Teitelbaum	Memory Systems and Religious Representation
10:00am–10:30am	Morning Break
10:30am–12:00pm	Session II: Narratives – Heavens and Hells
Tom Sjöblom	Narrativity, Emotions, and the Origins of Religion
Lee McCorkle	Memes, Genes, and Dead Machines: Evolutionary Anthropology of Death and Burial
Jani Närhi	The Cognitive and Evolutionary Roots of Paradise Representations
2:00pm–4:00pm	Workshop III: Reactions to the Evolutionary Study of Religion.
Chair:	Tom Lawson
Panel:	Justin Barrett (Theology); Michael Murray (Theology) Ann Taves (Religious Studies); Karen Wyman (Woman in the Evolutionary Study of Religion).
Response:	Cheryl Genet
4:30pm–6:00pm	Session III: God in Minds
Karen Wyman	Who has Counter-Intuitive Ideas? Ego Boundaries, Dreams and the Genesis of Religious Thought
Stuart Guthrie	Spirit Beings: A Darwinian, Cognitive Account
Uffe Schjødt	Experimental Cognitive Neuroscience and Religion
8:00pm-9:00pm	Evening Talk by Michael Dowd: Thank God for Evolution! Public Revelation and the Coming of Age of Religion

Day 6: Monday, January 8, 2007 – Bedrock Questions
The fifth day of the conference brings to the fore foundational questions about the naturalistic study of religion, as well as questions about the economic, spiritual, and political benefits and costs of religious belief and practice.

8:30am - 10:00am	Session I: Missing links in Evolutionary Methodology: Capital, Status, Supernatural Kinship
Barnaby Marsh	Evolution and Spiritual Capital
Paul Wason	Religion, Status and Leadership in Neolithic Avebury: An Example of Cauvin-Stark “Religion Drives Innovation” Hypothesis?
Lyle E. Steadman & Craig T. Palmer	Selection, Traditions, Kinship, and Ancestor Worship: Key Concepts in the Evolution of Religion
10:00am - 10:30am	Morning Break
10:30am - 12:00pm	Session II: Foundational Issues and Methodological Approaches in the Naturalistic Study of Religion
Michael Murray	Four Arguments that Evolutionary and Cognitive Psychological Explanations of Religion Undermine the Warrant of Religious Beliefs
Donald Wiebe	Does Talk about the Evolution of Religion Make Sense?
Justin Barrett	Keeping ‘Science’ in Cognitive Science of Religion: Needs of the Field
4:30pm - 6:00pm	Session III: Religious, Philosophical, and Political Themes
Carl Coon	Humanism and the Future Evolution of Religion
Barbara Hubbard	Evolutionary Spirituality: The Soul of Evolution
Dwight Collins	Evolution of Culture and Religion: Links to Sustainable Development
7:00pm - 8:00pm	Aloha Buffet Dinner
8:00pm - 9:00pm	Dessert and Closing Remarks and Evening Talk by Jeff Schloss: The Joke of Religion: Faith, Humor, and Internalized Signals
9:00pm	Acknowledgments and Conference Adjournment: Conference Organizers

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