Epstein Secrets

n toward a belief in supernatural agents, to something like a god," says experi- mental psychologist Justin Barrett of the Uni- versity of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Barrett and others see the roots of reli- gion in our sophisticated social cognition. Humans, they say, have a tendency to see signs of "agents"—

t innate rather than cultural biases, says Kelemen. But recent work suggests that it's not just children: Kelemen and Krista Casler of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylva- nia, found the same tendency to ascribe pur- pose to phenomena like rocks, sand, and lakes in uneducated Romany adults. The

ean toward a belief in supernatural agents, to something like a got says experi- mental psychologist Justin Barrett of the Uni- versity of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Barrett and others see the roots of reli- gion in our sophisticated social cognition. Humans, they say, have a tendency to see signs of "agents"—

t innate rather than cultural biases, says Kelemen. But recent work suggests that it's not just children: Kelemen and Krista Casler of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylva- nia, found the same tendency to ascribe pur- pose to phenomena like rocks, sand, and lakes in uneducated Romany adults. The

n toward a belief in supernatural agents, to something like a god," says experi- mental psychologist Justin Barrett of the Uni- versity of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Barrett and others see the roots of reli- gion in our sophisticated social cognition. Humans, they say, have a tendency to see signs of "agents"—

t innate rather than cultural biases, says Kelemen. But recent work suggests that it's not just children: Kelemen and Krista Casler of Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylva- nia, found the same tendency to ascribe pur- pose to phenomena like rocks, sand, and lakes in uneducated Romany adults. The