Death and the showman.

I read Steven Pinker's article ("The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion" September/October 2006) with great interest and found an omission in one of the "plausible attempts to explain religion as a biological adaptation" Pinker cites the fear of snakes as an example of "plausible adaptation," but what seems on the surface obvious to me wasn't mentioned--that religion is a ritualized mechanism for various people to cope with the fear of death. The three adaptations that are cited (receiving comfort, having a sense of community, and a need for higher ethical yearnings) can all be understood in the context of religion providing a way to accept and maybe embrace the act of dying and the subsequent fear of nothingness.

Thank you for a very interesting article.

Hal Zenner

Fair Haven, NJ

Based on observations attending Protestant churches (Pentecostal, sober fundamentalist, and mainline) I have one more reason in answer to Steven Pinker's question "Why do they buy it?" Pinker lists deference to experts and emotional predisposition for religious belief such as the efficacy of prayer. I would add an emotional predisposition to accept charismatic authority. We have this predisposition because all primates have hierarchical social structures. Note that, in this view, the Abrahamic religions can work to support egalitarian values only if "God" assumes the dominant alpha position and all competition is suppressed, including the charismatic preachers so beloved by American Protestants.

Dale L. Berry

Grants, NM