<HTML><HEAD>
<META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2722" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">
<DIV>I think the prevailing scientific view of religion is that it is primarily a social psychological phenomenon, an adaptation of sorts to group life, so it certainly makes sense that social scientists would tend to be interested in it in general, gender notwithstanding. It sounds like the researchers are looking for something more exotic, but I wonder if they are making the right distinctions to tease it out. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It would be interesting to have this type of study distinguish between different kinds of faith underlying the profession of being "religious." Two people who claim a affiliation with a religious community or an affinity for religion and can do so with very different attitudes toward it, and research often ignores this important fact. My suspicion is that it is not a homogeneous phenomenon, but our research tradition often appears to treat it essentially as such. Two people with "religious belief" can sometimes believe in very different things and I suspect also in in very different *ways* cognitively. You can easily find Bible thumping evangelicals with clear religious beliefs and equally easily find "liberal" philosopher-theologians with distinct religious beliefs but they certainly seem to approach the same topics in entirely different ways, and their beliefs take on different roles in their behavior.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>kind regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Todd</DIV></BODY></HTML>