<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1491" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </FONT>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>New England Institute for Cognitive
Science and Evolutionary Psychology</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>4th Annual William D. Hamilton Memorial
Lecture</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Religion as a Natural
Phenomenon</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT face=Arial size=2>Daniel C. Dennett</FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>April 29, 2005 at 7:00 PM </FONT></P>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>CHP Room, Parker Pavilion</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Westbrook College Campus</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>University of New England,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>716 Stevens Avenue, Portland, Maine.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>What kind of explanation can the natural sciences
provide for the variety of religious practices and beliefs? One possibility, of
course, is that it is simply the truth, and that all human groups discover this
in the same way that they discover that food and water are necessary for
survival, but there are other possible explanations that may shed light on the
powerful influence of religion in all contemporary societies. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2>Daniel C. Dennett is the author of Freedom Evolves
(Viking Penguin, 2003) and Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon &Schuster, 1995),
is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy and
Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. His first
book, Content and Consciousness, appeared in 1969, followed by Brainstorms
(1978), Elbow Room (1984), The Intentional Stance (1987), Consciousness
Explained (1991), Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995), Kinds of Minds (1996), and
Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays 1984-1996 (MIT Press and Penguin, 1998).
He co-edited The Mind's I with Douglas Hofstadter in 1981. He is the author of
over two hundred scholarly articles on various aspects on the mind, published in
journals ranging from Artificial Intelligence and Behavioral and Brain Sciences
to Poetics Today and the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. He gave the
John Locke Lectures at Oxford in 1983, the Gavin David Young Lectures at
Adelaide, Australia, in 1985, the Tanner Lecture at Michigan in 1986, and the
Jean Nicod lectures at Paris in 2001among many others. He has received two
Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Fellowship at the Center
for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Science. He was elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1987. He was the Co-founder (in 1985) and
Co-director of the Curricular Software Studio at Tufts, and has helped to design
museum exhibits on computers for the Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of
Science in Boston, and the Computer Museum in Boston.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>