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God would be a costly accident: Supernatural beliefs as adaptive

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Dominic D. P. Johnson
Dominic D. P. Johnson
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9LD Scotland, United Kingdom. dominic.johnson@ed.ac.ukhttp://dominicdpjohnson.com/
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Abstract

I take up the challenge of why false beliefs are better than “cautious action policies” (target article, sect. 9) in navigating adaptive problems with asymmetric errors. I then suggest that there are interactions between supernatural beliefs, self-deception, and positive illusions, rendering elements of all such misbeliefs adaptive. Finally, I argue that supernatural beliefs cannot be rejected as adaptive simply because recent experiments are inconclusive. The great costs of religion betray its even greater adaptive benefits – we just have not yet nailed down exactly what they are.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 6 , December 2009 , pp. 523 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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