The analogy with mathematics is useful. Mathematical competence is a decided evolutionary advantage, in protecting us from grievous and life-threatening errors. But it is advantageous because mathematics is true—objectively true. The sociobiology of mathematics won't give us access to its truth or in any way provide us with mathematical competence. Indeed, it will be strictly irrelevant to mathematical understanding and dependent upon the truth of mathematics for its own validation. The sociobiological theory of religion attempts to describe the evolutionary advantage to us of religion without reference to its truth—not because it assumes all religions to be false, but because it recognizes that their survival-inducing potential does not depend upon any particular set of metaphysical or magical doctrines.
(Roger Scruton, A Political Philosophy [London and New York: Continuum, 2006], 125)
