religion doesn't evolve

Marine biologist and former White House science adviser Jeff Schweitzer is not much impressed by speculations about a god gene and the evolution of religion. Nothing here about Higgs-Boson, though. (He's responding in part to Nicholas Wade's new book on the subject.) Thanks for the link, Dean. And oh, btw: the Hitchens response to the Googlers at 33'10" when he's asked about people who feel a need for the communal and other benefits of church membership but don't really believe any of the doctrine, and who seek out "the least obnoxious" faith and take it half-heartedly: "This used to be called the Church of England, or the Unitarians-- of whom Bertrand Russell remarked  that they believe in one god MAXIMUM." Hitch also mentions the late novelist Peter DeVries, who said the movement from poly- to mono-theism is progress, next step being non- or a- or anti-theism altogether. That presumably would be the apotheosis of religious evolution! (And is Hitch's response to Robert Wright.)

First, religion did not evolve through the mechanisms of natural selection. The idea of god perpetuates itself through cultural transmission. Second, atheists as a rule do not claim that religion is "useless" at all, fully recognizing that an appeal to an unseen force had benefits to early human societies unschooled in the sciences. Third, even if the absurd claim were true that religion evolved through natural selection, that would in no way challenge the tenet that god is nothing but a silly myth. The "evolution" of religion would simply mean that perpetuating a ridiculous myth had a selective advantage, nothing more, and would certainly not lend credence to the myth itself...

Religion was born not from some god gene, but of fear of the unknown, of the drive to control the uncontrollable, of the need to have mastery over one's fate in the face of an uncertain world. The first ideas of religion arose not from any awe of nature's wonder and order that would imply an invisible intelligent designer, but rather from concerns for the events of everyday life and how the vast unknown of nature affected daily existence. To allay fears of disease, death, starvation, cold, injury and pain, people fervently hoped that they could solicit the aid of greater powers, hoped deeply that they could somehow control their fate, and trusted that the ugly reality of death did not mean the end. Hope and fear combine powerfully in a frightening world of unknowns to stimulate comforting fantasies and myths about nature's plans.

The human brain is extraordinarily adept at posing questions, but simply abhors the concept of leaving any unanswered. We are unable to accept "I don't know," because we cannot turn off our instinct to see patterns and to discern effect from cause. We demand that there be a pattern, that there be cause and effect, even when none exist. So we make up answers when we don't know. We develop elaborate creation myths, sun gods, rain gods, war gods and gods of the ocean. We believe we can communicate with our gods and influence their behavior, because by doing so we gain some control, impose some order, on the chaotic mysteries of the world. By making up answers to dull the sting of ignorance, we fool ourselves into thinking we explain the world. Religion was our first attempt at physics and astronomy...