[ExI] atheists declare religions as scams.

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 31 January 2011 01:31, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think atheists would be much better off to try to understand why (in
> an evolutionary sense) humans have religions at all.

I thought the idea that our brains are adapted to err on the side of false positives when attributing agency to events was enough of an explanation.

You know, the 'movement in the bushes might be a lion' idea.  Those who assume it's a lion will survive when it actually is a lion, and those who don't, won't.  So attributing agency to things becomes a selected survival trait.  

I'm sure there will be other, contributing factors, but it seems to me that this is the main one.

Ben Zaiboc