God the accident and what science doesn't know

God an evolutionary accident?:Evolutionblog has excerpts from an Atlantic Monthly article arguing that religion is an evolutionary by-product of other things:

First, we perceive the world of objects as essentially separate from the world of minds, making it possible for us to envision soulless bodies and bodiless souls. This helps explain why we believe in gods and an afterlife. Second, as we will see, our system of social understanding overshoots, inferring goals and desires where none exits. This makes us animists and creationists.

I'm not so sure about this, though. Religion may have started with an excess of inferences, but modern people's strong attachment to religion - and newfangled pseudo-religions like UFOlogy - requires something more. Interesting stuff, though.

"But science doesn't know everything!":Skeptico has an essay on this line of reasoning, written as part of his series on fallacies.