Approaches to the Study of Religion in Modern Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract

The paper deals with approaches to religion within modern evolutionary psychology. In particular, the paper examines E. Wilson’s sociobiology, P. Richardson’s and R. Boyd’s concept of culture as «co-evolution», and R. Dawkins’ theories of memes and of religion as an «evolutionary by-product». Evolutionary psychology suffers from a few considerable and so far unsolved conceptual problems: the discussion of group selection; the issues of inherited and culturally depended components of religiosity; the question of «religious genes»; the theory of religion as «evolutionary by-product» etc. Among the main evident difficulties is the lack of its empirical verification. Nevertheless, evolutionary psychological approaches help to address classical issues of religious studies with new fresh perspectives.