Can Evolution explain this? (Re: The biological evolution of religious belief)

Interesting topic! I'm not terribly sure that you can get to your conclusion from your premises, but it's thought-provoking all the same.Can it be established, do you think, that belief in the supernatural actually has any reproductive or survival benefits? (I know Mormons outbreed your standard freethinker in the US today, but let's look at a bigger picture...) If not, perhaps religion is one of Gould's "spandrels" - something that arose as a byproduct of evolution, if you like, but that has no necessary function in perpetuating the species.Then, it might be that religion/belief in gods is one among several ways of organizing the tribe - the extended family that hunts or farms together - so that they are more unified and thus cooperate better. Grandpa, after all, is just a man. But if great-great-great-grandpa was a real, live wolf, and is somehow still alive out there in the night, and gives our band advice on where the deer are... That unifies our bunch, separates us from that degenerate bunch of fox-people over there, and may even help explain why there are 2000 Christian denominations in the US today.And my guess is that 98% is a little on the high side.

I'm guessing that not too far from half the people who have ever lived have been alive within the last century or so, and that even in the Dark Ages a good number of folks were agnostics/atheists: they just didn't noise it about much.
Over 90% is pretty likely.
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