These last years, I have made a sad experience repeatedly: When it comes to the evolution of religiosity and religions, many self-reported "rationalists" tend to falter. Although Charles Darwin himself naturally assumed a successful, biocultural evolution of religious behavior (as with any other behavioral trait), many self-purported "scientifically" people are not even able to assess the respective hypotheses.
But then, there are people as the Englishman Tom Rees out there, somewhat restoring my hope in scientific blogosphere. ;-) Tom is a medical writer with a PhD in biotechnology living in Hover, UK. He is deeply interested in religion (and even did a sound sociological study himself) and deeply critical as well, as prominently shown in the header of his eminent blog "Epiphenom".
But then, Tom is a scientist interested in empirical data - and his blog is containing lots of study reviews or even spontaneous calculations of his own. Although he frequently tends to interpret the findings the most critical way possible, he doesn't degrade or avoid conflicting positions, but tends to test core hypotheses from different perspectives repeatedly.
For example, Tom acknowledged that religious tend to have more offspring than their secular neighbours on average. But then, he also delved into the complex interactions of traditionalism and demographics on the national scales - attaining a more differentiated understanding of the subject than most of his peers.
Sometimes, I found assumptions of mine sustained: For example in a neuroanatomical study review which found a correlation of religious behavior and "social brain tissue", including some support for the supernatural punishment hypothesis.
But then, I had to rethink other assumptions of mine: I had expected that atheists, having less children on average, would invest more support into each of them, compared to the more fertile religious. But Tom's study review told me: No, although they are decreasing their numbers of offspring, atheists were no better parents. In fact, their children tended to come out somewhat more materialistic (again: on average!). To me, this was a real surprise.
Finally, Tom's blog is containing some beautiful gimmicks as a rotating bloglist ("Related blogs") and links to recent news. For example, I just found there this article from The Economist about Fertility and living standards, including this wonderful picture showing the contemporary global decline in fertility.
Badge of Honor!
Dear Tom, if more people out there would show the same curiosity and rationality in exploring religion(s) from an empirical and evolutionary perspective, our scientific understandings would accelerate. As many people (religious or "rationalists" alike) tend to avoid every scientific finding they don't like, your blog evolved into a rich and good spot of sincere learning and exploring. Thanks for that good work, example and encouragement!