A recent article in the Economist pointed out the irony of attempts by evolutionary biologists working on the “Explaining Religion” Project to find an evolutionary explanation for religious belief.
The irony is that a group a people who do not believe have spent a lot of time discovering and describing the evolutionary advantages and benefits of belief for the groups or individuals who do believe. This is the silly height of scientific objecitivity, since it implies either a) that the scientists have evolved beyond the urge to believe, or b) that they, as a group, are not going to make it much further in the evolutionary contest since they lack the trait of belief.
Evolutionary biologists tend to be atheists, and most would be surprised if the scientific investigation of religion did not end up supporting their point of view. But if a propensity to religious behaviour really is an evolved trait, then they have talked themselves into a position where they cannot benefit from it, much as a sceptic cannot benefit from the placebo effect of homeopathy. Maybe, therefore, it is God who will have the last laugh after all—whether He actually exists or not.
Funny? Oh, yeah.
