Recently in Science and religion Category

I don't know how I missed this in Nature News a few days ago, but there's an interview with David Sloan Wilson in which he talked about the importance of understanding evolution. One sentence in particular caught my eye:

The empirical evidence points to substantial group-level benefits for most enduring religions.

Granted, I haven't been following the blogs much lately, but I'm surprised that hasn't caused a firestorm on two counts.

1. Wilson claims that religion is beneficial. That claim is sure to enrage a lot of the "new atheists", e.g., Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, who deny that religion is beneficial. In fact, the Nature interviewer follows up with this question: "Does your approach annoy atheists?" To which Wilson responds "I piss off atheists more than any other category...."
2. Wilson claims that group-level benefits can be used as an explanation. That's sure to enrage Dawkins too. He became famous for The Selfish Gene, in which he argued strenuously that only genes can be the target of natural selection. I happen to think Dawkins is wrong, but there are probably more evolutionary biologists who agree with Dawkins than with me.