NATURAL-THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULTHOOD It is commonly assumed that young children only begin to think about God as a result of some educational or cultural influence, perhaps provided by their parents. Natural-Theological Understanding from Childhood to Adulthood asks if there is anything about God that children can know independently of any specific cultural input; does their knowledge of God simply come from their everyday encounters with the surrounding world? Whilst children’s theoretical reasoning in biology, physics and psychology has received considerable attention in recent developmental research, the same could not be said about their religious or theological understanding. Olivera Petrovich explores children’s religious concepts from a natural-theological perspective. Using supporting evidence from a series of studies with children and adults living in as diverse cultures as the UK and Japan, Petrovich explains how young children begin to construct their everyday scientific and metaphysical theories by relying on their own already advanced causal understanding. The unique contribution that this volume makes to the developmental psychology of religion is its contention that religion or theology constitutes one of the core domains of human cognition rather than being a by-product of other core domains and specific cultural inputs. Natural-Theological Understanding from Childhood to Adulthood is essential reading for students and researchers in cognitive-developmental psychology, religious stud- ies, education and cognitive anthropology. Olivera Petrovich is Research Fellow at the University of Oxford in the Department of Experimental Psychology. Her research deals with the origin and development of natural religious understanding across different cultures. ESSAYS IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY North American Editors: UK Editors: Henry Wellman Claire Hughes University of Michigan at Ann Arbor University of Cambridge Michelle Ellefson University of Cambridge Essays in Developmental Psychology is designed to meet the need for rapid publication of brief volumes in developmental psychology. The series defines developmental psychology in its broadest terms and covers such topics as social development, cognitive development, developmental neuropsychology and neuroscience, language development, learning difficul- ties, developmental psychopathology and applied issues. Each volume in the series will make a conceptual contribution to the topic by reviewing and synthesizing the existing research literature, by advancing theory in the area, or by some combination of these missions. The principal aim is that authors will provide an overview of their own highly successful research program in an area. It is also expected that volumes will, to some extent, include an assess- ment of current knowledge and identification of possible future trends in research. Each book will be a self-contained unit supplying the advanced reader with a well-structured review of the work described and evaluated. PUBLISHED White & Hughes: Why Siblings Matter: Siegal: Knowing Children (2nd Ed.) The Role of Brother and Sister Relationships in Meadows: Parenting Behavior and Children’s Development and Well-Being Cognitive Development Crone: The Adolescent Brain Langford: The Development of Moral Reasoning Needham: Learning About Objects in Infancy Forrester: The Development of Young Children’s Hughes: Social Understanding and Social Lives Social-Cognitive Skills Sprenger-Charolles et al: Reading Acquisition Hobson: Autism and the Development of Mind and Developmental Dyslexia White: The Understanding of Causation and Barrett: Children’s Knowledge, Beliefs and Feelings the Production of Action about Nations and National Groups Goswami: Analogical Reasoning in Children Hatano & Inagaki: Young Children’s Naïve Cox: Children’s Drawings of the Human Figure Thinking about the Biological World Harris: Language Experience and Early Language Goldwin-Meadow: The Resilience of Language Development Perez-Pereira & Conti-Ramsden: Language Garton: Social Interaction and the Development Development and Social Interactions in Blind of Language and Cognition Children Bryant & Goswami: Phonological Skills and Bryne: The Foundation of Literacy Learning to Read Meins: Security of Attachment and Cognitive Collins & Goodnow: Development According to Development Parents For updated information about published and forthcoming titles in the Essays in Developmental Psychology series, please visit: www.routledge.com/series/SE0532 NATURAL-THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULTHOOD Olivera Petrovich First published 2019 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business ©  2019 Olivera Petrovich The right of Olivera Petrovich to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Names: Petrovich, Olivera, author. Title: Natural-theological understanding from childhood to adulthood/Olivera Petrovich, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Description: 1 Edition. | New York: Routledge, 2019. | Series: Essays in developmental psychology | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018021005 (print) | LCCN 2018025024 (ebook) | ISBN 9781317380740 (ePub) | ISBN 9781317380757 (Adobe) | ISBN 9781317380733 (Mobipocket) | ISBN 9781138939448 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138939479 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781315674964 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Children–Religious life. | Adults–Religious life. Classification: LCC BV4571.3 (ebook) | LCC BV4571.3 .P48 2018 (print) | DDC 200.83–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021005 ISBN: 978-1-138-93944-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-93947-9 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-67496-4 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India To the memory of my mother and father and the friends whose interest in this work I always found encouraging and stimulating yet who did not live to see its completion. CONTENTS List of figures viii List of tables x Preface xii Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction 1 2 Causal understanding: Physical and metaphysical 13 3 Children’s theories: Scientific and non-scientific 23 4 Early ontological knowledge: The world and its contents 32 5 In the beginning: Cosmological reasoning in children and adults 68 6 The natural-theological concept of God: A unique causal agent 85 7 Theology as a core cognitive domain 106 8 Innateness of religion within the limits of science alone 121 9 Conclusions, exclusions and some implications 130 References 137 Appendix 153 Author Index 154 Subject Index 158 FIGURES 4.1.1 Mean numbers of correct responses (out of eight) for British children and adults across the three conditions in Study 1 42 4.2.1 B ritish children’s mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) according to stimulus group, task and condition in Study 2 45 4.3.1 British and Japanese children’s mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) across the four conditions of the Origin Task in Study 3 52 4.3.2 British and Japanese children’s mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Origin and Animacy Tasks in Study 3 55 4.4.1 British and Japanese children’s mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) across the four conditions of the Origin Task in Study 4 57 4.4.2 British and Japanese children’s mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Origin and Animacy Tasks in Study 4 60 4.4.3 British and Japanese adults’ mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) across the four conditions of the Origin Task in Study 4 61 4.4.4 British and Japanese adults’ mean numbers of correct responses (out of six) in the Origin and Animacy Tasks in Study 4 63 Figures ix 5.4.1 O rigin of matter: Percentages of British and Japanese children selecting “Never began (eternal)” and “Began (created)” options in response to the first cosmological question 76 5.4.2 G od’s role in the origin of matter: Percentages of British and Japanese children selecting “Matter first” and “God first” options in response to the follow-up cosmological question 77 5.4.3 O rigin of matter: Percentages of British and Japanese adults selecting “Never began”, “Began” and “Neither” options in response to the first cosmological question 80 5.4.4 G od’s role in the origin of matter: Percentages of British and Japanese adults selecting “Designer”, “Creator” and “No role” options in response to the follow-up cosmological question 82 6.3.1 British and Japanese children’s mean scores (out of six) on abstractness of the God-concept 99 6.3.2 British and Japanese children’s mean scores (out of six) on abstractness of justifications 99 6.4.1 B ritish and Japanese children’s and adults’ mean scores (out of six) on abstractness of the God-concept 101 6.4.2 B ritish and Japanese children’s and adults’ mean scores (out of six) on abstractness of justifications 101