Understanding Religion from Cultural and Biological Perspectives

We present a synthesized biological and cultural approach to religion. We discuss religion in terms of evolutionary byproducts, adaptation, cultural learning, and cultural evolution to help explain where religion originates. Specifically, we propose that religion first appeared because it is a robust byproduct of several adaptive modules, that these byproducts may in fact be adaptive or functional, and that cultural learning largely determines the details of religion and the degree of religiosity. In all we discuss religion as a product of the complex interplay of culture and biology.