Wilkins John S. - Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon: Volume V

The International Library of Essays on Evolutionary Thought
Series Editor: Neil Levy

Titles in the Series:

Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology: Volume I
Stefan Linquist

Evolutionary Psychology: Volume II
Stefan Linquist and Neil Levy

Evolutionary Ethics: Volume III
Neil Levy

The Evolution of Culture: Volume IV
Stefan Linquist

Intelligent Design and Religion as a Natural Phenomenon: Volume V
John S. Wilkins

Edited by

John S. Wilkins

Bond University and the University of Sydney, Australia

First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Copyright John S. Wilkins 2010. For copyright of individual articles please refer to the Acknowledgements.

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Wherever possible, these reprints are made from a copy of the original printing, but these can themselves be of very variable quality. Whilst the publisher has made every effort to ensure the quality of the reprint, some variability may inevitably remain.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Intelligent design and religion as a natural phenomenon.

Volume 5. (International library of essays on
evolutionary thought)
1. Psychology, Religious. 2. Genetic psychology.
3. Intelligent design (Teleology)
I. Series II. Wilkins, John S., 1955
200.19-dc22

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009938973

ISBN 9780754627630 (hbk)

The editor and publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use copyright material.

ABC-CLIO Inc. for the essay: Allen D. MacNeill (2006), The Capacity for Religious Experience is an Evolutionary Adaptation to Warfare, in F. A. Stout (ed.), The Psychology of Resolving Global Conflicts: From War to Peace, Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, pp. 25784. Copyright 2006 ABC-CLIO Inc.

American Anthropological Association for the essay: Pierre Linard and Pascal Boy er (2006), Whence Collective Rituals? A Cultural Selection Model of Ritualized Behavior, American Anthropologist, , pp. 81427. Copyright 2006 American Anthropological Association.

Brill Academic Publishers for the essays: Joseph Bulbulia (2005), Are There Any Religions? An Evolutionary Exploration, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, , pp. 71100. Copyright 2005 Brill Academic Publishers; James W. Dow (2006), The Evolution of Religion: Three Anthropological Approaches, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, , pp. 6791. Copyright 2006 Brill Academic Publishers; Justin L. Barrett and Brian Malley (2007), A Cognitive Typology of Religious Actions, Journal of Cognition and Culture, 7, pp. 20111. Copyright 2007 Brill Academic Publishers; Pascal Boyer (1992), Explaining Religious Ideas: Elements of a Cognitive Approach, Numen, , pp. 2757. Copyright 1992 Brill Academic Publishers; Jesse M. Bering and Dominic D.P. Johnson (2005), 0 Lord You Perceive my Thoughts from Afar: Recursiveness and the Evolution of Supernatural Agency, Journal of Cognition and Culture, , pp. 118-42. Copyright 2005 Brill Academic Publishers.

John Wiley and Sons for the essays: Loyal Rue (2000), Religion Generalized and Naturalized, Zygon, , pp. 587602. Copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons; Ursula Goodenough (2000), Exploring Resources of Naturalism: Religiopoiesis, Zygon, , pp. 56166. Copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons; Lyle B. Steadman and Craig T. Palmer (1997), Myths as Instructions from Ancestors: The Example of Oedipus, Zygon, , pp. 34150. Copyright 1997 John Wiley and Sons; Deborah Kelemen (2004), Are Children Intuitive Theists? Reasoning about Purpose and Design in Nature, Psychological Science, , pp. 295301. Copyright 2004 John Wiley and Sons; Gregory R. Peterson (2000), God, Genes, and Cognizing Agents, Zygon, , pp. 46980. Copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons; Azim F. Shariff and Ara Norenzayan (2007), God Is Watching You: Priming God Concepts Increases Prosocial Behavior in an Anonymous Economic Game, Psychological Science, , pp. 803809. Copyright 2007 John Wiley and Sons; Gregory R. Peterson (2002), The Intelligent-Design Movement: Science or Ideology?, Zygon, , pp. 723. Copyright 2002 John Wiley and Sons; William Grey (1987), Evolution and the Meaning of Life, Zygon, , pp. 47996. Copyright 1987 John Wiley and Sons; Barbara Forrest (2000), The Possibility of Meaning in Human Evolution, Zygon, 35, pp. 86180. Copyright 2000 John Wiley and Sons.

The Royal Society for the essay: Maurice Bloch (2008), Why Religion is Nothing Special But is Central, Philosophical Translations of the Royal Society B, , pp. 205561. Copyright 2008 The Royal Society.

Springer for the essays: Joseph Bulbulia (2004), The Cognitive and Evolutionary Psychology of Religion, Biology and Philosophy, , pp. 65586. Copyright 2004 Springer; David Sloan Wilson (2005), Testing Major Evolutionary Hypotheses about Religion with a Random Sample, Human Nature, , pp. 382409. Copyright 2005 Springer. Candace S. Alcorta and Richard Sosis (2005), Ritual, Emotion, and Sacred Symbols: The Evolution of Religion as an Adaptive Complex, Human Nature, , pp. 32359; Copyright 2005 Springer; Elliott Sober (2002), Intelligent Design and Probability Reasoning, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, , pp. 6580. Copyright 2002 Springer; John S. Wilkins and Wesley R. Elsberry, (2001), The Advantages of Theft over Toil: The Design Inference and Arguing from Ignorance, Biology and Philosophy, , pp. 71124. Copyright 2001 Springer.

Taylor & Francis for the essays: Francisco J. Ayala (2003), Intelligent Design: The Original Version, Theology and Science, , pp. 932. Copyright 2003 Taylor & Francis; Justin L. Barrett (2007), Is the Spell Really Broken? Bio-psychological Explanations of Religion and Theistic Belief, Theology and Science, , pp. 5772. Copyright 2007 Taylor & Francis; Howard J. Van Till (2008), How Firm a Foundation? A Response to Justin L. Barretts Is the Spell Really Broken?, Theology and Science, 6, pp. 34149. Copyright 2008 Taylor & Francis.

Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.

The theory of evolution is one of sciences great achievements. Though to those outside science, it may seem that the theory is controversial, within science there is no controversy at all about its basic form. Moreover, the theory of evolution plays a pivotal role in guiding new research. Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote; the theory of evolution unifies disparate subfields of biology and generates testable predictions for each. The success of the theory and its explanatory fecundity for biology cannot be doubted. But might the theory also be capable of illuminating phenomena outside the direct purview of biology?