Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'group level selection'

Methodology & “Evolution of Religion”

August 21st, 2011 · 2 Comments · Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, Methodology

Over the past decade several books and articles have appeared which purport to explain the “evolution of religion” as an adaptation, usually invoking group level selection as the source. These explanations nearly always depend on the fallacious assumption that if something evolved, it must be have been selected and therefore is adaptive. These explanations also [...]

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Contra Deus ex Machina

July 30th, 2011 · 16 Comments · Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, Morality

In Ars Poetica (“The Art of Poetry”), the great Roman lyricist Horace counsels against using gods to resolve thorny plots. The deus ex machina is simply too tidy and unbelievable. When gods swoop in to save the day, the mundane becomes sacred. Metaphysics to the rescue.

I was reminded of Horace’s enduring wisdom by two recent [...]

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The Sins of an Evolutionary Psychologist

April 22nd, 2011 · 5 Comments · Emotions, Evolutionary Adaptation, Methodology

In a recent essay on the cult of David Foster Wallace, Nathan Heller notes that DFW’s mature work deals with the crisis of contemporary pluralism: “how to think intelligently and truthfully about the world when that world is full of intelligent and truthful people who adhere to irreconcilable schools of thought.” While Heller [...]

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Tricksters, Selfishness & Altruism

April 16th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Evolution, Evolutionary Byproduct, Hunter-Gatherers, Philosophy

In evolutionary biology, few issues have caused more debate than altruism or what appears to be altruism. It is generally accepted that selection operates on individual organisms and that these organisms are selfishly interested in their own survival and reproduction. Another way of stating this is that individual organisms are interested solely in passing along [...]

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Sizing Up Kinship: Larger Groups Win

March 16th, 2011 · 8 Comments · Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, Hunter-Gatherers

There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation. What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. The story usually goes like this: at some unknown time during the middle or upper Paleolithic, certain groups of hominins developed proto-religious beliefs. These beliefs supposedly caused group members to dance, sing, and [...]

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Interrogating Richard Dawkins

March 2nd, 2011 · 2 Comments · Atheism, Cognition, Cultural Evolution, Evolution

Over at Spiegel, Markus Becker and Frank Patalong have posted an interview with Richard Dawkins, whose latest book — The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution — has just been published in German and given an awful title: “The Creation Lie: Why Darwin is Right.” Two things come immediately to mind.
First, it is [...]

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Proto-Religious Foragers v. Non-Religious Foragers

February 9th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Archaeology, Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, Hunter-Gatherers

In a recent post on group level selection and the evolution of religion, I observed that if we assume such selection was operating on human groups during the Paleolithic, three factors play a major role in determining which groups come out on top. These three factors are: (1) group size, (2) technology, and (3) language. [...]

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The Religion Gene (I)

January 23rd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Methodology

Last week, an unfortunate paper appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, a leading academic journal. Its title is “Religion, Fertility and Genes: A Dual Inheritance Model” (open access). Despite being profoundly flawed in its premises and assumptions, the paper garnered major attention from the press. My local paper ran this headline: “Scientist: Religion [...]

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Group Level Selection? The Non-Evolution of Religion

January 16th, 2011 · 15 Comments · Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, History, Ritual

There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation.  What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. The story usually goes like this: at some unknown time during the middle or upper Paleolithic, certain groups of hominins developed proto-religious beliefs. These beliefs, which are rarely if ever specified, somehow gave [...]

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An Evolutionary History of Compassion

October 6th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology, Cognition, Emotions, Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct

A new book, The Prehistory of Compassion, is generating a fair amount of press coverage.  The title has a familiar ring to it and seemingly riffs Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind.  I would not be surprised if this is the case, given that Mithen and the authors are UK archaeologists with Cambridge connections.  [...]

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