Warum sind Menschen religiös? Die evolutionäre Perspektive

Abstract

The question, to which extent religious behavior can be explained as a biological trait has been discussed intensively during the last decades and was answered differently. After a short account of some recent theories I will define religiosity as a belief in supernatural and overpowering gods and discriminate it from animism, i.e. the belief in spirits. In the second part of the article I will discuss if Palaeolithic art and burials can be considered as evidence for religious behavior. I will come to the conclusion that this is not the case and that religiosity has only emerged in the environment of civilisation from a genetic predisposition for animistic thinking.