Chapter 17 The Religious System as Adaptive: Cognitive Flexibility, Public Displays, and Acceptance

Abstract Religion is often conceived as a conservative social force that sus-tains traditional cultural beliefs and behaviors. Religion, however, also exhibits predictable socioecological variation and facilitates adaptive response patterns in the diverse environments that humans inhabit. Here we examine how the reli-gious system, which is composed of a number of interacting components, gener-ates adaptive response patterns. We argue that the religious system accomplishes this by: (1) employing highly flexible cognitive mechanisms, (2) evoking emo-tional responses that provide reliable information concerning individual physical and psychological states, (3) supporting specialists who introduce religious ideas that endorse and sustain the social order, and (4) encouraging collective acceptance of these ideas with public displays, typically in the form of rituals, badges, and taboos. These interacting components of the religious system ultimately promote prosocial behavior under diverse conditions. There is considerable debate among evolutionary and cognitive scholars about th