"Evolution equipped our species with powerful defense mechanisms to deal with this foreknowledge—in particular, psychological suppression and religion."
Religion is a result of evolution?
Religion is a result of evolution?
It's also quite convenient for increasing local societal cohesion (though generally to the detriment of inclusiveness) which could conceivably provide a group advantage.
Incidentally this phrase " cultures are a direct result of the evolutionary process" is a apparently taboo for anthropologists today. I tried to ask such a question on reddit's askanthropology, about which aspects of genetic differences contribute to cultural artifacts, like alcoholism differences, lactose intolerance differences etc. the question was apparently racist and removed