and sometimes imply that further work on this question is, if not alto-
gether futile, at least certainly undemanding. If you say "I use genetic
algorithms to produce computationally efficient cellular automata,"
people see quite clearly that doing that kind of thing probably
requires some effort. But if you tell them that you are in the business
of "explaining religion," they often do not see what is so complicated
or difficult about it. Most people have some idea of why there is reli-
gion, what religion gives people, why they are sometimes so strongly
attached to their religious beliefs, and so on. These common intu-
itions offer a real challenge. Obviously, if they are sufficient, there is
no point in having a complex theory of religion. If, as I am afraid is [5]
more likely, they are less than perfect, then our new account should
be at least as good as the intuitions it is supposed to replace.
Most accounts of the origins of religion emphasize one of the fol-
lowing suggestions: human minds demand explanations, human hearts
seek comfort, human society requires order, human intellect is illusion-
prone. To express this in more detail, here are some possible scenarios:
Religion provides explanations:- People created religion to explain puzzling natural phenomena.
- Religion explains puzzling experiences: dreams, prescience, etc.
- Religion explains the origins of things.
- Religion explains why there is evil and suffering.
Religion provides comfort:- Religious explanations make mortality less unbearable.
- Religion allays anxiety and makes for a comfortable world.
Religion provides social order:- Religion holds society together.
- Religion perpetuates a particular social order.
- Religion supports morality.
Religion is a cognitive illusion:- People are superstitious; they will believe anything.
- Religious concepts are irrefutable.
- Refutation is more difficult than belief.
Though this list probably is not exhaustive, it is fairly representa-
tive. Discussing each of these common intuitions in more detail, we
will see that they all fail to tell us why we have religion and why it is
WHATISTHEORIGIN?