How does the theory of evolution explain the development of religion?
“Claim: Evolution doesn’t explain religion. Responses: 1. There have been many explanations for religion within an evolutionary framework, mostly focussing on group cohesion. Social structuring and cooperation provided the frameworks for religion. By creating religions, groups could find ways to better enforce social mores, form group identity and pass on traditions that benefited the group, such as cooking specific herbs to make remedies (as evidenced by “medicine men” in Native Americans and other cultures). Therefore, the organisms with religion in their group would be better able to pass on their genes for that behaviour. 2. Humans have evolved to make false positives rather than false negatives. That is, we are more likely to see agents where there are none than we are to miss agents when they are there (for example, we are more likely to interpret a shadow as a human or animal, and it is not likely we will attribute a human shadow to a complex arrangement of tree branches). This
