Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

God Is A Spandrel

Darwin’s God is the title of an interesting article* in the New York Times magazine about exploring the basics of the two major camps in the scientists studying the evolution of religious belief: the byproduct theorists and the adaptionists. The former posit theories that religion is a byproduct of some other cognitive processes. That’s the "God is a spandrel" camp. The adaptionists, on the other hand, posit theories that religion of itself is a succesful evolutionary strategy. The article opens with the author (Robin Marantz Henig) introducing the person and the work of the anthropologist Scott Atran. He’s an interesting character, and I’m in the middle of his book In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion. However, I’m not convinced by his explanation of the "African Relic" anecdote related in the NYT article. It seems to me to be much more reasonable that, rather than the subjects’ reluctance being powered by superstition, as he claims, it’s powered by suspicion.
 
I need to explore both sides of the byproduct versus adaptionist arguments some more. My natural tendency is to plump for the "God is a spandrel" explanation, but I’m quite willing to accept evidence that religion might have once solved problems of survival and reproduction of our early ancestors. I’m far less convinced that it continues to do so today.
 
*This link goes to the opening section of the article reproduced on the Richard Dawkins web site. The full article is currently to be found here, but the NYT has a habit of placing archive material behind a subscription wall. Get it while it’s hot.

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4 responses to “God Is A Spandrel”

  1. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    How very interesting.  Is God a King Charles Spandrel, or a Cocker Spandrel?
     
    The New York Times has free registration except for the Times Select sections denoted by the orange gothic T icon, which will cost you.  Rather annoying as it hides all its columnists behind the charge and I love Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich.  I try to pick them up in the International Herald Tribune hard copy the next day.

    Reply
  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Neither – God lives in the intersection between two arches 🙂  Thanks for clearing up the subscription conditions of the NYT. Hopefully that means the Henig’s article will live on and be freely accessible…

    Reply
  3. Gelert Avatar
    Gelert

    I agree about the box – it’s fine with a pencil, cos if there’s some trick and its gets mashed, so what. Your driving license now – you want to be able to get home right, and if there’s some trick or magician’s tactic, no license. It’s suspicion I agree. Not a good experiment.
     
    Of course, you know there is a third posibility here?

    Reply
  4. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    A third possibility? Nah. No way. 🙂 But I still enjoy fairy stories, I admit. 

    Reply

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