"I am moved by the interest in religion in non-believers". This is what Lluis Oviedo, expert in Cognitive Sciences of Religion and professor of Theological Anthropology at the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome, said at the University.

Prof. Oviedo was invited to the October seminar of the group Science, Reason and Faith (CRYF) to speak on "The New Scientific Study of Religion: Contributions, Limits and Challenges".

The author of books such as Secularization as a Problem or Altruism and Charity made a synthesis of different reasons to rethink the movement of the Cognitive Sciences of Religion, and explained that "when thinking about the problems that arise in the maturation of this movement we also see its incidence in the dialogue between science and faith".

During his speech he stressed that "ignoring higher cognition and reducing it to the merely intuitive is not a good move to understand the religious phenomenon", and recalled that what has failed in the cognitive and biological programs of study of religion has been to fall into an anthropology that is too partial: "We need a less reductive anthropology that allows us to give a due account of the human condition. The cognitive dimensions to be more complete require taking into account the processes of development and the historical ones that reflect evolution and profound changes".

 Furthermore, the expert emphasized the importance that "the scientific approach of religion takes into account a long tradition of programs of study on religion that has already offered a deep and knowledge accumulated vision, such as theology, Philosophy and the phenomenology of religion, for example".