After a survey revealed that one in two scientists is religious, paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, who died in 2002, said, "Either half my colleagues are enormously stupid, or else the science of Darwinism is fully compatible with conventional religious beliefs -- and equally compatible with atheism." But Hitchens believes "all attempts to reconcile faith with science and reason are consigned to failure and ridicule." Dawkins makes himself even clearer: "The alleged convergence between religion and science is a shallow, empty, hollow, spin-doctored sham."

Science, ironically, is finding answers to the question of why evolution stands such a poor chance against religion. There is growing evidence that man, as a result of his brain, is wired to believe in higher powers, not just because of his fear of death.

The human weakness for gods may be rooted in the tremendous social abilities of Homo sapiens. "People are very good at maintaining relationships with individuals beyond their physical presence," the American psychologist Pascal Boyer recently wrote in the scientific journal Nature. Boyer argues that this is the only way hierarchies and alliances can function over time.

Religions also share surprisingly universal traits -- including a preference for personal gods, which look, think and feel like people. And ritual behavior could be directly related to the architecture of the brain. As Boyer writes, it is known that the human brain contains networks designed to avoid danger. Religious rites, which revolve around physical purity, predatory villains and hidden threats are presumably nothing more than an echo of the past millions of years.

American psychologist Michael McCullough, after evaluating studies from the social sciences and neurosciences, has found evidence that religious convictions and modes of behavior are helpful in strategic planning and controlling emotions. Religious rituals like prayer and meditation, McCullough writes in the current issue of the Psychological Bulletin, a professional journal, "affect the parts of the human brain that are the most important for self-regulation and self-control."

Besides, Boyer notes, religious thinking is "the path of least resistance for our cognitive system." Non-belief, writes Boyer, is usually the result of deliberate hard work against the natural disposition -- "not exactly an ideology that is easy to disseminate."

There are many indications that man's astonishing inclination toward faith is a byproduct of the evolution of the brain. But perhaps, writes Boyer, we will one day find proof that faith played an active role in the survival of Homo sapiens. In this sense, perhaps, God would indeed have played a role in the evolution of man.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/science-vs-religion-has-darwin-failed-a-602644-2.html