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Why minds create gods: Devotion, deception, death, and arational decision making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2005

Scott Atran*
Affiliation:
CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, 75007 Paris, France; Institute for Social Research–University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1248 http://www.institutnicod.org
Ara Norenzayan*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z4, Canada www.psych.ubc.ca/~ara
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Abstract:

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The evolutionary landscape that canalizes human thought and behavior into religious beliefs and practices includes naturally selected emotions, cognitive modules, and constraints on social interactions. Evolutionary by-products, including metacognitive awareness of death and possibilities for deception, further channel people into religious paths. Religion represents a community's costly commitment to a counterintuitive world of supernatural agents who manage people's existential anxieties. Religious devotion, though not an adaptation, informs all cultures and most people.

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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004