ABSTRACT
Call religiosity beliefs and practices respecting gods, along with the cultural and psychological architecture that supports religion. Religiosity presents a striking evolutionary problem. From a biological perspective, it would appear that humans should have developed allergies to religion. e burdens that religion imposes – its opportunity costs, resource outlays, and risks – appear in vivid contrast to nature’s thrift. We should have evolved to recoil from religion, as Richard Dawkins recoils from religion, yet religiosity is commonplace. Naturalists interested in the evolution of humans are faced with a “cost problem” (Atran 2002; Bulbulia 2004b; Dennett 2006).
