Mary Cole: The Systematic Supernatural / Systematic Ideology as a Framework for the Origin, Function, and Alteration of Religion
August 4, 2013
Winner, 2013 George Walford International Essay Prize. In an evolutionary context, a belief in the supernatural is costly. Evolutionary cost refers to anything that reduces an individual’s eventual reproductive success from what that individual would otherwise achieve. Such cost includes unnecessary practices that either neglect or consume resources that otherwise could be used provision oneself… read more »