On the emergence and evolution of religion

On NewScientist yesterday: Religion is a product of evolution, software suggests

Kinda off-topic, but it interests me because of the software (published with the study). Of course, as an atheist, explanations for why we created religion are always interesting. A short quote from the NewScientist report:

The model assumes, in other words, that a small number of people have a genetic predisposition to communicate unverifiable information to others. They passed on that trait to their children, but they also interacted with people who didn't spread unreal information.

The model looks at the reproductive success of the two sorts of people – those who pass on real information, and those who pass on unreal information.

Under most scenarios, "believers in the unreal" went extinct. But when Dow included the assumption that non-believers would be attracted to religious people because of some clear, but arbitrary, signal, religion flourished.

The full paper can be read here.

NOT recommended

The Origin of Speeches: Intelligent Design in Language by Isaac E. Mozeson

What a horrible pun. Of course I am not wasting my time wih this one, but it makes one wonder what on earth could be the argument. A nice review from Amazon:

" I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony...I'm not sure where to start. This book is full of idiocy. Yeah, that sums it up." - Tsee Lee "FRRF.org"

Just released

The Origin of Speech by Peter Macneilage

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing by Richard Dawkins (ed.)

The first one is essential for the dissertation, but something tells me the second is far more interesting. Will be ordering them soon.

Althenberg 16 or the Woodstock of evolution

A high profile workshop on evolution to be held next July at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Evolution and Cognition Research. Looks promising for sure and mainstream/state of the art. Neither Kaufmann nor Piatelli-Palmarini were invited. Here is a copy of the invitation. The first paragraph:

We are writing to invite you to what we hope will be a major event to be hosted by the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Evolution and Cognition Research, in Altenberg, Austria (http://www.kli.ac.at/), on 10-13 July 2008. Our idea is nothing less than getting together a high-level group of biologists and philosophers to have a frank exchange of ideas about what, if anything, might a new Extended Evolutionary Synthesis look like.

Neo-Neo-Darwinism or a new paradigm?

Very interesting interview with Piatelli-Palmarini. So far, his ideas are way outside mainstream scientific consensus. He is co-authoring a book with Jerry Fodor about evolution with mechanisms other than natural selection. More specifically, physical invariant principles shaping organisms. It does not get away with natural selection entirely, but intends to reduce its role in evolution. Unfortunately, it might be interpreted as good ammunition to Creationists/Intelligent Design proponents, although it is serious Science. The book is expected to late 2009. Meanwhile, Stuart Kaufman's Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion is out. This one, unfortunately, might be a much easier involuntary propaganda to Creationists. I'll keep my eyes open for further developments.