The Biology of Religion: A Darwinian Gospel

The vigor of religious feelings, and the fact that most, if not all, cultures include a system of spiritual belief, suggest that humans have an innate predisposition towards religiousness. There are several possible adaptive advantages that may help explain such a disposition; religions promote cooperative relations, they induce people to obeysensible rules, and they soothe the minds of their followers. These advantages could very well have directed evolution towards the design of a spiritually inclined brain. Accepting that God is inside our heads, the important question is not if he exists, but rather: What can he do for us? As a rule of thumb humans are advised to conform to their inborn tendencies, implying that we ought to believe in spirits. Religiousness offers both direct rewards, for example the joy associated with communicating with a god, as well as indirect benefits such as those suggested above. O u g h t G o d to W o r r y ? W h e n Darwin publ ished his theory o f evolut ion, some of his strongest opponents were priests. The church was t rembling. Wou ld his ideas demol i sh the bibl ical descr ipt ion o f creation, and the concep t o f Man as standing apart f rom all o ther creatures? It looks as though G o d does not need to worry. A recent survey publ ished in Nature (Larson & Wi tham, 1997) concludes that even scientists are jus t as engaged in re l ig ious behav io r n o w as they were at the beg inn ing of the century. Ano the r report in Science (Easterbrook, 1997) finds that re l ig ion has reconci led its confl ic ts with rational inquiry and is prospering. W e are indeed devoted to our spirits. So is G o d with us after al l? There may be a compos i te answer. Yes, G o d exists. A t the least he is in your brain, encoded for by the genes responsible for the des ign o f your mental functions. A not ion sugBj~rn GHnde, National Institute of Public Health, P.O. Box 4404, Torshov, N-0403 Oslo, Norway; E-Mail: bjom.grinde @ labmed.uio.no. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 21(1):19-28 Copyright © 1998 by JAI Pre.ss, Inc. ISSN: 1061-7361 All fights of reproduction in any form reserved.