There are many high-fertile religious communities out there - as, for example, the Old Order Amish. Other religious groups, as the Shakers, who didn't manage (or chose) to have enough children, succumbed to (bio-)cultural evolution. In contrast, we still don't know about a single, non-religious population, movement or group that was able to retain more than two births per woman (the so-called replacement level) throughout subsequent generations. This is relevant from a sociocultural perspective: Secularization is taking place (especially among wealthy and secure populations) - but running into demographic dead ends, followed by religious-demographic revivals (through births and immigration). And it is relevant from the perspective of evolutionary studies: Intergenerational reproductive success is "the" benchmark of evolutionary fitness, promoting biocultural traits as speech, musicality - or religiosity. (More)

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After a presentation speech of his book "Shall the Religious inherit the Earth?", (see the review by Tom Rees in "Epiphenom") Eric Kaufmann is discussing religious demographics with Dominic Lawson and Laurie Taylor.

If you are interested in more data (from an evolutionary perspective), you might want to take a look at the

* Web Resources on Religion and Reproduction

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To explain religious behavior is a daunting task. One very recent attempt is to explain religious behaviors and religion within an evolutionary framework. In "The Nature of God - Evolution and Religion" by editor Ulrich Frey, a range of established and young experts from various disciplines analyze religion and religiosity as phenomena in a Darwinian world. Is religiosity adaptive? Are religious people more fertile? Do we have cognitive predispositions to be religious? Are children natural believers? New answers to these questions are presented in this fascinating array of contributions from the field of evolutionary studies of religion.

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Now, the Darwin Year is over. In a sense, sadly so. It has been full of surprises. Think of it: How many people expected it to run as a kind of a climax in the Culture Wars between (some) Evolutionists and (some) religious Fundamentalists. But then, surprising things happened: Christian preachers as e.g. Michael Dowd thanked God for Evolution and more and more atheists, agnostics and believers discovered together, that evolutionary studies were a splendid way to discover new facts about religiosity and religions, building a new and shared, scientific perspective on the matter.

As I have done on the German Scilogs, I decided to endorse three very special books that helped to pave the way for a better understanding of evolution and religion(s).

1. Voland, Schiefenhövel (Eds.): The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

It is an expensive piece of scientific jewellery. And I am amazed everytime, when I browse and read through it. 19 chapters of evolutionary studies on religion, each a unicum in itself. There is e.g. the Chinese contribution in Neuropsychology of religious belief by Shihui Han or the multi-dimensional American theory about the "Where", "When" and "Why" of the Evolution of Religion (Matt Rossano). There is the captivating cross-check of evolutionary theories with ethnological observations in Melanesia (Wulf Schiefenhövel) and... well, see for yourself the list of contents!

As I had been part of the Delmenhorst-conference about Biology of Religion back in 2007, I had been impressed by the sheer, interdisciplinary dynamics of a bunch of courageous scholars. With "TBEoRMB", Eckart Voland and Wulf Schiefenhövel not only managed to distill this event, but to expand upon it. Although the book may be too special and too expensive to get a wider audience, it will sure be treasured (and used) by those dedicated to evolutionary studies of religion far beyond the Darwin Year.

2. Schaller, Norenzayan et al. (Eds.): Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind

Well, the cognition and culture institute got the flair of this impressive and broad tome: "An enormous amount of scientific research compels two fundamental conclusions about the human mind: The mind is the product of evolution; and the mind is shaped by culture. These two perspectives on the human mind are not incompatible, but, until recently, their compatibility has resisted rigorous scholarly inquiry. Evolutionary psychology documents many ways in which genetic adaptations govern the operations of the human mind. But evolutionary inquiries only occasionally grapple seriously with questions about human culture and cross-cultural differences. By contrast, cultural psychology documents many ways in which thought and behavior are shaped by different cultural experiences. But cultural inquires rarely consider evolutionary processes. Even after decades of intensive research, these two perspectives on human psychology have remained largely divorced from each other. But that is now changing - and that is what this book is about." It is divided into three parts (1. How Evolution and Culture Fit Together., 2. Evolutionary Bases of Cultural Phenomena., 3. Evolutionary Universals and Cross-Cultural Differences.) with international and intercultural teams adressing these in captivating studies and chapters. Of course, I especially appreciated:
*S. Solomon, J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, F. Cohen, D.M. Ogilvie, Teach these Souls to Fly: Supernatural as Human Adaptation.
* A.F. Shariff, A. Norenzayan, J. Henrich, The Birth of High Gods: How the Cultural Evolution of Supernatural Policing Influenced the Emergence of Complex, Cooperative Human Societies, Paving the Way for Civilization.
But other chapters e.g. about social selection or Baumeister's The Human Mind and the Evolution of Cultural Animals offered food for (scientific) thought for years to come.

3. Robert Wright: The Evolution of God

Although Wright featured the E-word in the title, his book (sadly) doesn't recourse on many contemporary studies e.g. about the biological bases or biocultural effects of religiosity. Instead, Wright is presenting and discussing the cultural evolution of religions in the framework of Game theory. Well written, I have seen that some of my students and colleagues new to the field found Wright's approach very accessible and convincing. What's more, it's offering some ethnological and historical insight in the recent evolution of religious behavior and religions. If you are seeking a book for introducing someone in the perspective of evolutionary studies on religion without risk of drowning in divergent theories, Wright's book is a very good choice.

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As I did my doctorate thesis about religion & brain sciences in 2003 to 2005, it was possible to get an overview over the main body of relevant literature, although I had to invest some hundred Euros on books not yet available in libraries. But since then, there has been a tremendous growth of scientific publications concerning the evolution of religiosity and religions, ranging from archaeology to political sciences, from (evolutionary and cultural) psychology to sociology right into the various branches of (socio-, micro-, behavioral-, neuro- etc.)biology, theology, philosophy and many, many more.

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Empirical studies on the evolution of religiosity and religions have been thriving these last years. These days, Springer's "Frontiers Collection" set a new standard. The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior (BERMB) is rooted in the international Delmenhorst-conference on "The Biology of Religion" and has been expanded by contributions from other scholars. It is offering a broad picture of studies and models at the forefront of this scientifc field, which is tending toward interdisciplinary consesus on many subjects in surprisingly short time.

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The Bertelsmann Stiftung's RELIGION MONITOR is an instrument which looks at the issues of religion and faith to an unprecedented degree. It was developed by religious scientists, sociologists, psychologists and theologians and was first employed in 2007.

In a representative survey, 21,000 people from all continents and world religions were asked about their views on the world and the meaning of life, their religious practices and notions of God. The project will be repeated and expanded at regular intervals in order to carry out and produce an empirical study of the development of religiousness. For more information about the Bertelsmann Religion Monitor click here (pdf). (More)

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Once and again, I have experienced heated debates whether "religion" qualifies as an adaptation, an exaptation or "only" as an epiphenomenon. The problem is: Although religion may be described as behaviour towards supernatural agents, there is no consensus available about the exact meaning of the other, biological terms. In fact, most of these cloudy discussions turn out to be rather ideological and emotional debates without much empirical foundation. For anyone really interested in evolutionary science, it is high time to proceed beyond!

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These last days, we have witnessed a piece of history in religions and politics: US-President Barack Hussein Obama giving an interreligious speech as a Christian to Muslims worldwide, using scientifc studies of Gallup for preparation, circumventing extremists and authoritarian regimes by inviting religious and scientific scholars, opposition leaders and human rights activists - and especially by using the new possibilities of the Internet. Hundreds of Millions have yet heard his message, thousands more taking and discussing the speech in this very moment. As extremists and nationalists, who used to abuse Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other teachings to incite fear and violence, are fuming, pro-peace, pro-dialogue and pro-democracy voices among the religious people are growing in confidence and strength. And there are fresh voices around: Robert Wright did an analysis from the perspective of evolutionary religious studies. Here is the video and complete text of Obama's speech.

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