Does religion really poison?
August 13, 2012
The Chronicle Review
http://chronicle.com/article/Does-Religion-Really-Poison/133457"evolutionary religious studies"
"Still, a growing body of research suggests that religion or religious ideas, in certain circumstances, in some people, can elicit the kind of behavior that is generally good for society: fairness, generosity, honesty. At the very least, when you read the literature, it becomes difficult to confidently assert that religion, despite the undeniable evil it has sometimes inspired, is entirely toxic."
"David Sloan Wilson, a professor of biology and anthropology at Binghamton University, is an atheist (as was his father, the novelist Sloan Wilson) who is interested in finding out what religion does, from an evolutionary perspective, for individuals and societies. Why does belief in the supernatural cut across cultures, and why has it persisted for millennia? He took a crack at such dauntingly large questions in his book
Darwin's Cathedral, arguing that religion bestows an array of evolutionary advantages on groups of believers."
"Jerry Coyne, a professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, ...doesn't dispute the claim that religion might serve as a sort of societal glue, but he's not sure that's a point in its favor. 'Does it bind a community together if they throw acid in the face of a schoolgirl?' he asks."
Locked
