ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a twofold but interrelated blind spot in the debate concerning evolution of religion: the absence of a theoretical concept of religiosity and the neglect of the believing processes. To understand the scope of this contribution it is first needed to figure out a theoretically relevant precondition, namely the distinction between notion/term and concept. The religion-and-evolution debates mainly focus on the notion/term “religion” and hereby often use an antiquated concept of religion that has been shaped in the 19th century. This has a double negative effect: On one side, it displaces the manifold conceptual changes that the term “religion” has traversed through over centuries. On the other side, it leads to a theoretical neglect of (the term) religiosity and as a consequence to a blind spot that diminishes the human capacity of believing as well as the functions of the believing processes. Recently, the processes of believing (credition) have become a topic of increasing scientific interest, which is approached by different disciplines, such as philosophy, neuroscience, biology and religious studies. Any understanding of the evolution of religion(s) needs to be complemented by an understanding of the evolution of religiosity, which is related to the evolution of the capacity for believing.
