37 Benjamin Grant Purzycki Richard Sosis Religious Concepts as Necessary Components of the Adaptive Religious System Abstract: The majority view of cognitive scientists of religion holds that religious concepts are merely byproducts of evolved minds. Howev- er, religious concepts exhibit patterned socioecological variation, sug- gesting that they may be responsive to local selective pressures. Con- cepts worthy of religious devotion are intriguing, emotion-triggering, and framed in such a way that makes them relevant to one’s wellbeing. As such, these concepts are more likely to be transmitted and therefore shared. It is their perceived sharedness and the effects of entertaining supernatural agent concepts in particular which motivate individuals to participate in costly rituals. These rituals indicate shared models and their costs signal devotion to the community. As ritual behavior— when rationalized with religious concepts—sustains cooperative rela- tionships, we maintain that such concepts are a necessary component of the adaptive religious system. 1. Introduction Scholars have devoted a significant amount of attention to the ques- tion of whether or not religion is adaptive (Bulbulia et al. 2008). Re- garding the adaptiveness of religious beliefs in particular, the view that pervades most evolutionary explanations is that religious concepts are