Dominic Johnson, What are atheists for? Hypotheses on the functions of non-belief in the evolution of religion, Religion, Brain & Behavior, Vol. 2, No. 1, February 2012, 48-99
http://dominicdpjohnson.com/publications/pdf/2012JohnsonWhatAreAtheistsFor.pdf
“An explosion of recent research suggests that religious beliefs and behaviors are universal, arise from deep-seated cognitive mechanisms, and were favored by natural selection over human evolutionary history. However, if a propensity towards religious beliefs is a fundamental characteristic of human brains (as both by-product theorists and adaptationists agree), and/or an important ingredient of Darwinian fitness (as adaptationists argue), then how do we explain the existence and prevalence of atheists – even among ancient and traditional societies?”
Discussion
https://groups.google.com/d/topic/everything-list/Coy6f4G-RqM/discussion