# Is religion adaptive or maladaptive?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-religion-adaptive-or-maladaptive/680906>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 9, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-religion-adaptive-or-maladaptive/680906 "2014-02-09T19:07:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-religion-adaptive-or-maladaptive/680906/21 "2014-02-10T14:06:45Z")

</div>

> [@Desert\_Dumpster](#):
>
> I believe that’s Michael Shermer’s thesis, that religion is an artifact/side effect of something that _is_ adaptive, i.e., the programming in small children that makes them accept everything that their parents say as true without question. Useful in a dangerous world.

Michael Shermer apparently has never met many of the small children that I’ve met. Small children that I’ve known often disagree with their parents.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-religion-adaptive-or-maladaptive/680906.md?page=1)