{"id":195,"date":"2008-06-01T20:42:37","date_gmt":"2008-06-01T20:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2008\/06\/a-computer-tackles-the-origin.html"},"modified":"2008-06-01T20:42:37","modified_gmt":"2008-06-01T20:42:37","slug":"a-computer-tackles-the-origin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/06\/a-computer-tackles-the-origin.html","title":{"rendered":"A Computer Tackles the Origin of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Its nickname: Evogod<\/a>. <\/p>\n

God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved
\nBy distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out \u0013 perhaps because they are impressed by their devotion.
\n“If a person is willing to sacrifice for an abstract god then people feel like they are willing to sacrifice for the community,” says James Dow, an evolutionary anthropologist at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, US, who wrote the program \u0013 called Evogod.
\nDow is by no means the first scientist to take a stab at explaining how religion emerged. Theories on the evolution of religion tend toward two camps. One argues that religion is a mental artefact, co-opted from brain functions that evolved for other tasks.
\nAiding the people
\nAnother contends that religion benefited our ancestors. Rather than being a by-product of other brain functions, it is an adaptation in its own right. In this explanation, natural selection slowly purged human populations of the non-religious.
\n“Sometime between 100,000 years ago to the point where writing was invented, maybe about 7000 BC, we begin to have records of people’s supernatural beliefs,” Dow says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Its nickname: Evogod. God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out \u0013 perhaps because they are impressed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Computer Tackles the Origin of God - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/06\/a-computer-tackles-the-origin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Computer Tackles the Origin of God - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Its nickname: Evogod. God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out \u0013 perhaps because they are impressed…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/06\/a-computer-tackles-the-origin.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-06-01T20:42:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"bfeiler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Computer Tackles the Origin of God - Feiler Faster","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2008\/06\/a-computer-tackles-the-origin.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Computer Tackles the Origin of God - Feiler Faster","og_description":"Its nickname: Evogod. 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