A non-psychological theory of the origin of religion that seems to be consistent
with certain psychological principles is the “intellectualist” theory (Skorupski,
1976). According to this theory, religious beliefs are plausible hypotheses so that
even primitive religion can be said to be rational. Modern psychology substantially
corroborates emergence of rationality in early development, as findings about children’s
scientific and philosophical theories and hypotheses indicate (e.g., Wellman
& Gelman, 1998). To verify Skorupski’s intellectualist theory of religion, however,
we need to test empirically a number of psychological questions, which he himself
did not envisage but sought to explain religion as a sociological topic entirely.