ABSTRACT
Some surveys estimate that more than 80 percent of the world’s population holds some form of religious conviction (Barrett, Kurian, and Johnson 2001: 550). One explanation for religion’s prevalence proposes that an evolved set of cognitive mechanisms supports the acquisition, transmission and stability of religious concepts (Lawson 2000: 340). The research activity developing around cognitive interpretations of religion has increased signifi cantly (Deacon 1997: 109; Pinker 1997: 525–565), incorporating explanations for religious doctrine (Atran 2002), transmission (Boyer 2005), rituals (McCauley and Whitehouse 2005; Whitehouse 2005), and evolution (Slone 2005).
