Religious behavior has long been the object of study by the humanities, with only few attempts to analyze its emergence and maintenance in human population from a Darwinian perspective. However, the natural sciences, together with researchers from various fields, are turning to the systematic study of religious behavior through an evolutionary perspective. Due to this new and growing field of research, we will review some of the major evolutionary hypotheses for the maintenance of religious behavior in human populations and analyze the main empirical results obtained until now. Despite the diversity of beliefs and recognized importance given to religion in our country, very few Brazilian researchers are working on this theme. We believe that this review may be important to raise awareness and encourage the study of religious behavior by evolutionary perspective on our country by scholars from different fields.
theory of evolution; religion and science; evolutionary psychology; Darwinism