Cui bono? A review of breaking the spell: religion as a natural phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett.

Howard read Dennett’s 2006 book Breaking the Spell. The book says religion evolved because it helped groups survive.

Howard wrote a short review in a behavior journal. He asked, “Where is the selection inside one person’s life?”

Dennett talks about tribes and centuries. He skips how each person’s acts are selected day by day.

Howard says that gap leaves out operant conditioning—the real-time process that shapes what we do.

Takashima et al. (1994) already filled that gap. They map how the environment picks and triggers each response, just like natural selection picks genes.

Leslie (2006) shows the idea is old. Herbert Spencer wrote in 1855 that consequences select behavior, long before Skinner.

Neuringer et al. (2017) pull from another philosopher, Epicurus, to show how selection can guide good lives without punishment. All three papers give the fine-grain selection story Howard wants.

When you write a behavior plan, think in two layers. Big cultural rules matter, but the real work is the micro-selection you do each trial. Pair praise, tokens, or breaks with the target act right then. That is the evolutionary force inside one lifetime.