If our forebears had carefully investigated every swish and rustle that caught their attention, they would have found that most could be explained without invoking a volitional agent. But from the standpoint of adaptive fitness, their burdensome investment in seeking the truth would have had little going for it. Across tens of thousands of generations, our brains eschewed greater accuracy for a rough-and-ready understanding. Nimble responses often beat considered assessments. Verity is an important character in the drama of belief but is easily upstaged by survival and reproduction.
