Some scholars have argued that through ritual practice, certain feelings can be activated that could conceivably provide a primitive “believer” with the ability to, for example, control his fears and thus be more successful than a “nonbeliever” in hunting prey. But even if it were true that possessing supernatural beliefs could lead to physical or psychological benefits that increase evolutionary fitness (and that is highly doubtful), there is no reason to presume that not having such beliefs would decrease evolutionary fitness.
