Michael Blume | The Nature of Faith

Michael Blume: ABOUT THE AUTHOR

During the last years, a new, biocultural perspective on religiosity, defined as behavior towards superempirical agents (such as ancestors, angels, gods or God), has developed and improved dynamically. In interfaculty and international networks, scientists in the humanities, cultural, psychological, social and religious studies teamed with evolutionary biologists, geneticists, neurologists and anthropologists to explore the evolutionary, natural history of religion(s). Dr. Michael Blume was born in 1976 in Filderstadt, Germany. He's currently lecturing Religious Studies at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. His promotional thesis focused on theories on religion in the brain sciences (the so-called "neurotheologies”). Dr. Blume then specialized on the reproductive potentials of religiosity - the complex workings of religious communities augmenting birth and survival rates (and thus: evolutionary success) of religious people in comparison to their (more) secular neighbours. Together with biologist Rüdiger Vaas, Dr. Blume published “Gott, Gene und Gehirn. Warum Glauben nützt. Die Evolution der Religiosität” (Hirzel 2009). He was the first German to be invited into the directory of the Evolutionary Religious Studies. His science-blog “Natur des Glaubens” won the Scilog-Award 2009. In 2010, he was awarded the "Vermittlungen" (German: Mediation)-Award of the Protestant Academy Villigst for his work bridging religion(s) and the natural sciences. Blume is the editor of the Religion-section at the Online-Magazine "Evolution - This View of Life" by David Sloan Wilson. Dr. Blume is part of a Christian-Muslim family and a father of three.

Michael Blume: All Posts

May Atheism succeed demographically?

Posted 5 May 2013 by Michael Blume

In the wake of the fruitful explosion of Evolutionary Studies of Religion, Evolutionary Studies of Atheism are making inroads, too. I was glad to be able to blog about Dominic Johnson's respective hypotheses last summer and recently about a ground-breaking paper by Ara Norenzayan and Will M. Gervais. Although we are beginning to understand the emergence and expansion of non-religious worldviews better than ever, a major question remains: Are human populations lacking any beliefs in superempirical agents doomed to demographic... Read more

Posted in Evolutionary Studies |

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Was Parental Investment Theory discovered only by male scientists?

Posted 13 April 2013 by Michael Blume

Parental investment is an important topic in the evolution of sexes and genders throughout nature. It focusses not on purportedly "fixed" traits, but explores the contributions of parents to the wellbeing of their offspring. As the peacock is the beloved symbol of sexual selection, pointing to males competing for female choices, proponents of parental investment are emphasizing many animals with higher male contributions such as many birds right to the seahorse with "reversed" sexual roles. Established science history is crediting... Read more

Posted in Arts & Symbols, Book Reviews, Evolutionary Studies |

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The first German Biography of Antoinette Brown Blackwell as a sciebook

Posted 13 March 2013 by Michael Blume

She was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and fought (finally successfully) for her right to study theology as he had done. She became a renowned speaker for women's rights and the abolition of slavery. She was ordained to be the first woman pastor in the USA and she married happily and became a mother of six. And as if all this wouldn't have been enough, she wrote several remarkable books on science, religion & philosophy, endorsing evolutionary theory as an... Read more

Posted in Book Reviews, Evolutionary Studies |

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Religion, Brain & Behavior – Free to Download this Month!

Posted 13 February 2013 by Michael Blume

Its name is "Religion, Brain & Behavior", it is published by Taylor & Francis - and it quickly became THE cutting-edge journal for evolutionary studies of religion! Being a member of the IBCSR (Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion), I am enjoying every issue and found lots of thoughts and data relevant to my work. But now, I got a notification that all published articles which ever appeared on RBB are free for download throughout February 2013! I mean,... Read more

Posted in Book Reviews, Evolutionary Studies |

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Evolutionary Studies of Religion – Answering Jonathan Mair

Posted 1 February 2013 by Michael Blume

One of the great scientific chances of the Web is the possibility of interfaculty and international dialogue. As I had posted "It's about fertility, stupid!" about the reproductive potentials of religiosity, anthropologist Jonathan Mair answered with three blogposts of his own, each containing some critical questions to the field of study in general and my contributions therein. I'll gladly try to answer now, hoping that the debate will be informative for readers enjoying the exchange of arguments. Blogpost 1: Is... Read more

Posted in Evolutionary Studies |

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The Amish Paradise – Educating by Humor

Posted 17 January 2013 by Michael Blume

Since I explored the Amish for a better understanding of religious fertility potentials, I have published some articles and a (German) eBook to inform my scientific colleagues as well as a broader public about this Anabaptist tradition. You may take the sciebook's title as a wonderful example of words lost in translation: The German term "Die Amish" is simply meaning "The Amish" in German, whereas it may look like a sinister wish in English (which it isn't, of course! I... Read more

Posted in Evolutionary Studies |

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Evolutionary Studies of Religion in the German SPIEGEL

Posted 22 December 2012 by Michael Blume

Today is a great day. No, not (only) because those pseudo-scientific and greedy doomsayers have been proven wrong (again) by the very fact of a peaceful December 22nd, 2012 (in Germany, that is). My happiness hormones were sent flying by the lead story of the major German weekly DER SPIEGEL - about our Evolutionary Studies of Religion. Credit: http://www.spiegel.de/ ... Read more

Posted in Book Reviews, Evolutionary Studies |

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It’s about Fertility, stupid! The Evolutionary Adaptivity of Religion

Posted 14 November 2012 by Michael Blume

Religiosity (defined as behavior towards superempircal agents) is today clearly adaptive: Members of competitive religious communities are building stronger families with more offspring worldwide as their secular neighbours of the same education and income levels. This is observable in empirical studies, censusses worldwide, as well as in case studies (i.e. Amish, Hutterites, Mormons, Orthodox Jews). In contrast, non-religious populations and those religious communities who do not build and support families inevitably succumb to cultural evolution (i.e. late Greek and Roman... Read more

Posted in Evolutionary Studies |

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Jesus Christ in German Colors in Rio

Posted 10 October 2012 by Michael Blume

For very good reasons, Germans became very reluctant about merging religious and national symbols after World War II. For many, it was a great experience to see that you could be emotionally attached to your own country and to be inviting to others at the same time during the Soccer World Championship 2006. Thanks to the creativity and contacts of the German honorary consul Harald Klein in Brazil, the Catholic church agreed to advertise the upcoming year of German-Brazil-friendship by... Read more

Posted in Arts & Symbols |

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Reptiles with a Conscience – The Coevolution of Religious and Moral Doctrine by Nathan Cofnas

Posted 26 September 2012 by Michael Blume

There are evolutionary books available presenting new scientific findings and theories. There are others proclaiming a specific thesis and bringing forth respective arguments. And there are, very seldom, evolutionary books that are able to evoke the spirit of university lectures and seminaries debating the very frontiers of knowledge. “Reptiles with a Conscience” belongs to this rare third category and is worth a read by anyone interested in the evolutionary processes that shaped our moral feelings and religious traditions. ... Read more

Posted in Book Reviews, Evolutionary Studies |

5 Comments | Permalink