<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">Speculations I’ve seen by evolutionary psychologists and others range from spandrel ones (it arose from other adaptations, such as cognitive biases to pattern matching and agency) to more directly adaptive ones (such as it evolved to bond groups more tightly together which made for better survival during crises and conflicts between groups).<div><br></div><div>There are approaches like Justin Barrett’s (see his _Why Would Anyone Believe in God?_) that use cognitive science to analyze religious believe. These are not strictly evolutionary, though the presumption could be that the cognitive structures responsible for religious belief evolved. I’d recommend him over Campbell if you’re looking for a more (and less dated?) scientific approach. (Kind of like Frazer is dated even if he’s immensely popular.)<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="line-height: normal;"><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books at:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">http://author.to/DanUst</span></p></div></div></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Apr 23, 2020, at 7:28 AM, William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div></div></body></html>