SRP is a cluster of sub-projects applying computer simulation techniques to the scientific study of religion. Modeling and simulation depends on data, so building and finding datasets is a vital part of SRP.

Extant simulation research in religion has posited very simple human minds, simple interactions, simple behaviors, and simple modes of change. This is for good reasons: excessive complexity in a simulation obscures the relevant lines of causality and we lose cognitive control over our own models. But too much simplicity gives wrong answers, just as too much complexity gives unclear and confused ones. So SRP strives to strike the right balance.

SRP integrates multiple theories of religion and produces tools capable of testing hypotheses about religion’s social and cultural effects. The Simulating Religion Project will try to answer questions such as, “What are the factors that contribute to civilizational transformation?”, “What role does religion play in social change?”, and “How do evolved cognitive, emotional and social tendencies interact?” Simulation techniques permit a newly persuasive approach to such questions, complementing approaches pursued in other disciplines.