Is Religion Hardwired Into Humans?
Scholars who study the evolution of human psychology, theorize that we developed a cognitive bias to be religious.
When our species evolved in prehistoric times, it was advantageous to be overly-cautious to avoid predators. You had to be overly sensitive to every sound; every image in your peripheral vision. Because those who had a overactive sense of agency detection would avoid being eaten by say a Sabertooth tiger.
Scholars of cognitive evolution call this our Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD), a fancy name for our tendency to see agency or intention in the world around us…even when agency or intention is ambiguous or might not even be there in the first place.
Scholars theorize that this cognitive quirk might be the origins of religious beliefs because HADD plus our ability for abstract thinking equals the building blocks for more complex religious ideas and the existence of invisible beings.