The role of evolutionary psychology within an interdisciplinary science of religion

Abstract

The recent explosion of research on religion by biologists, anthropologists, and psychologists offers the prospect of a truly interdisciplinary science organized by an evolutionary paradigm. However, such unification will be elusive in the absence of proper vertical integration of biological, psychological, and anthropological levels of analysis. This article reviews arguments for an evolutionary approach to psychology that is consistent with, and founded upon, evolutionary biology; it then argues that in the same manner, an evolutionary approach to anthropology must be consistent with, and founded upon, evolutionary psychology. The author suggest that ongoing debates in the evolutionary study of religion, such as whether religion is an adaptation or a byproduct, often conflate biological, psychological, and cultural levels of analysis, and often fail to appreciate the indispensible role of the psychological level of analysis between biological and cultural levels. In the final section, the author attempts to articulate this role in an effort to promote true vertical integration of psychological and anthropological evolutionary approaches to religion.