Is Religion an atrifact of evolution?

jamstar7 writes: In an article on , author Ewen Callaway suggests that the need for religious faith may have evolved in the species:

God may work in mysterious ways, but a simple computer program may explain how religion evolved



By distilling religious belief into a genetic predisposition to pass along unverifiable information, the program predicts that religion will flourish. However, religion only takes hold if non-believers help believers out — perhaps because they are impressed by their devotion.

And there's even a link to the similation software they used to study and model this hypothesis.