sophisticated mind reading is a substantial asset also in stalking prey
and avoiding predators. For archaeologist Steven Mithen, the evi-
dence available suggests that modern humans had a much better
understanding of other animals' mental states than their predecessors
had, adding to the evolutionary pressure for astute mind reading. In
any case, it is clear that predation constitutes one of the central con-
texts where our intuitive psychology is activated.^4
From an altogether different background many scholars of religion
in the past noticed frequent references to hunting as well as the salience
of hunting or predation metaphors in many religions. Shamanism is all
[146] about hunting for souls, chasing spirits away or avoiding predation by
dangerous witches, and these metaphors are found in other types of
religion as well. Classicist Walter Burkert described hunting as one of
the major domains of our evolutionary past that religion seems to point
to. Also, many anthropologists have noted the presence of many dan-
gerous predators in the mythology and supernatural repertoire of many
peoples. The awe-inspiring jaguar of many Amazonian cosmologies,
like the were-tigers of many Asian myths and beliefs, bears witness to
the salience of dangerous predators.^5
ARE GODS REALLY LIKE PREDATORS?
Justin Barrett's notion of agency hyperdetection is based on experi-
mental evidence about our inference systems and provides a context
where we can make better sense of some apparently peculiar features
of religious agents. For one thing, as Guthrie pointed out, sensing the
presence of barely detectable agents is generally not a comforting
feeling. Many such agents are dangerous or frightening rather than
reassuring, which makes good sense if the systems activated in such
contexts were originally geared to the detection of dangerous preda-
tors. Also, as I said in Chapter 2, the agents described as "gods" or
"spirits" are mainly represented as persons plussome counterintuitive
feature, which always creates some ambiguity as to whether they are
otherwise like persons or not. In most human groups and in most
contexts this ontological uncertainty is not really resolved (nor does it
appear to be of interest to anyone). In what way the ancestors or the
gods are precisely similar to or different from humans is largely left
unexplored. This is perhaps less surprising if the main inference sys-
tem activated when representing such agents is agency-detection,RELIGION EXPLAINED