“What kind of Jekyll-and-Hydra-headed beast is this thing called religious faith? In the view of Wilson . . . a very natural and very powerful beast indeed, and one that helps explain humanity’s rise to global dominance. Wilson, a renowned evolutionary biologist, proposes that religionāwith all of its institutional, emotional, and prescriptive trappingsāranks as a kind of mega-adaptation: a trait that evolved because it conferred advantages on those who bore it.”