?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=On+Evolution+of+God-Seeking+Mind%3A+An+Inquiry+Into+Why+Natural+Selection+Would+Favor+Imagination+and+Distortion+of+Sensory+Experience&rft.creator=Montell%2C+Conrad&rft.subject=Philosophy+of+Mind&rft.subject=Evolutionary+Psychology&rft.subject=Social+Psychology&rft.description=The+earliest+known+products+of+human+imagination+appear+to+express+a+primordial+concern+and+struggle+with+thoughts+of+dying+and+of+death+and+mortality.+I+argue+that+the+structures+and+processes+of+imagination+evolved+in+that+struggle%2C+in+response+to+debilitating+anxieties+and+fearful+states+that+would+accompany+an+incipient+awareness+of+mortality.+Imagination+evolved+to+find+that+which+would+make+the+nascent+apprehension+of+death+more+bearable%2C+to+engage+in+a+search+for+alternative+perceptions+of+death%3A+a+search+that+was+beyond+the+capability+of+the+external+senses.+I+argue+that+imagination+evolved+as+flight+and+fight+adaptations+in+response+to+debilitating+fears+that+paralleled+an+emerging+foreknowledge+of+death.+Imagination%2C+and+symbolic+language+to+express+its+perceptions%2C+would+eventually+lead+to+religious+behavior+and+the+development+of+cultural+supports.+Although+highly+speculative%2C+my+argument+draws+on+recent+brain+studies%2C+and+on+anthropology%2C+psychology%2C+and+linguistics.&rft.publisher=Konrad+Lorenz+Institute&rft.contributor=Wimmer%2C+Manfred&rft.contributor=Reidl%2C+Rupert&rft.date=2002&rft.type=Journal+(Paginated)&rft.type=PeerReviewed&rft.format=application%2Fpdf&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2726%2F1%2F81-Montell.pdf&rft.identifier=++Montell%2C+Conrad++(2002)+On+Evolution+of+God-Seeking+Mind%3A+An+Inquiry+Into+Why+Natural+Selection+Would+Favor+Imagination+and+Distortion+of+Sensory+Experience.++%5BJournal+(Paginated)%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F2726%2F