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【原文】
Ⅰ①Many people think that religious belief is inherent to human psychology. ②This does not mean that specific beliefs are wired, but that the brain is predisposed to believe in supernatural agents. ③Some proponentsof this idea argue that supernatural beliefs have hijacked innocent or otherwise useful features of the mind. ④But Dominic Johnson argues in “God Is Watching You”, belief in God—specifically, in supernatural forces that can punish—is a useful evolutionary adaptation.

Ⅱ①Mr Johnson argues that there is little harm if you overreact to something that turns out not to exist. ②But underestimating a rustling in the undergrowth, which might conceal a predator, could be fatal, leading to evolutionary selection of a tendency to see agents everywhere. ③The instinct is easily triggered, even in atheists. ④Even pictures can set it off: in one experiment, an office honour-system to pay for shared coffee got more contributions when someone taped a picture of a pair of eyes on the collecting tin.

Ⅲ①There is also a tendency in most people to put greater emphasis on punishment than on reward: losing $100 is far more painful than winning the same amount is pleasing. ②Why would belief in an angry god be any use? ③When humans developed language, they could spread word of cheating, freeriding and the like. ④Raping your neighbour’s mate might once have made evolutionary sense—spreading your own genes at little cost—but “in a clever and gossiping species, knowledge of selfish actions could spread and come back to haunt us” in the form of a furious husband or a village mob. ⑤Since cheating is now costlier, belief in an invisible monitor helps people avoid those costs, and so survive with their reputations intact, and pass on their genes.

Ⅳ①Mr Johnson noted that societies which punish cheaters are more likely to survive and grow. ②He quotes John Locke, a 17th century English philosopher: “Those who deny the existence of the Deity are not to be tolerated at all. ③Promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon or sanctity for an atheist.” ④Those bonds and covenants allow societies to co-ordinate action and plan for the future. ⑤Mr Johnson’s own research into 186 preindustrial cultures found that moralising religious beliefs were more prevalent in larger and more complex societies. ⑥The fact that moralising religious beliefs are more prevalent in more complex societies does not prove that one caused the other. ⑦But the striking number and variety of examples add credence to Mr Johnson’s theory.

Ⅴ①The religious instinct is too deep-seated, he thinks. ②Instead, critics of superstition are best advised to work with the grain of human psychology rather than against it, finding more benevolent ways to satisfy human yearning for something “out there”. ③What form such an atheist religion should take, though, God only knows.

【词汇短语】
1. wire [ˈwaɪəd] v. 接通电源
2. *predisposed [pri:dɪs'pəʊzd] adj. 倾向于
3. *proponent [prəˈpəʊnənt] n. 支持者
4. *rustling [ˈrʌslɪŋ] n. 沙沙声
5. honour-system 无看守监禁制
6. furious [ˈfjʊəriəs] adj. 狂怒的
7. *covenant [ˈkʌvənənt] n. 协议
8. hold upon 控制力
9. *sanctity [ˈsæŋktəti] n. 神圣
10. credence [ˈkri:dns] n. 相信
11. grain [greɪn] n. 细粒
12. *benevolent [bəˈnevələnt] adj. 慈善的
13. *yearning [ˈjɜ:nɪŋ] n. 渴望
（注：标*的为超纲词）