Postpartum Theology

Abstract

The gods are born—and we have borne them. Theoretical insights based on empirical research from dozens of disciplines converge to support the plausibility of the scientific hypothesis that the cross-cultural phenomenon of shared imaginative engagement with axiologically relevant supernatural agents is the result of the integration of evolved cognitive mechanisms for detecting and dealing with natural agents and evolved coalitional mechanisms for participating in and protecting social groups, mechanisms whose hypersensitivity was reciprocally reinforced and naturally selected despite the normal mistakes that were produced by the former and precisely because of the miserly normativity that was produced by the latter.