Has religion become a maladaptive evolutionary trait?

not clear to me that enhancing survival of a subpopulation requires a reduction in overall survival of the species. I think you would need to demonstrate that the loss of survivability exceeds the increase in survivability resulting from the act.

This would be somewhat like declaring war as counter to species survival, yet clearly war has been a constant fact of our behavior, so it appears that war simply decides which population tends to survive without actually negatively affecting overall survivability-it is a form of competition for limited resources. Of course, now that man can destroy all human life with relatively simple acts (which was never possible beforehand), the balance may be changed.

Our species survival appears to depend in large part on social factors, cooperation. Cooperation within groups and competition between groups appears to have a benefit in our survivability. Religion is one way to define social groups and cooperating teams.

There is always a risk that competition will cause the demise of all parties involved rather than resulting in the success of one. I don't think that has changed. I don't think the risk is higher today than it ever has been.

IMHO it's too soon to tell, and this question may or may not be answered in time.

But I speculate that the the selective attributes of religion have always been with humanity, and have indeed led to significant selection. For example, one selective mechanism associated with religion is obedience to authority. Said authority allies itself with human instinct by creating, selecting, and promoting infallible means of happiness, damnation and salvation. Authoritarian religionists guide the submissive religious in all forms of reward and punishment including oppression, war, and sexual selection.

Now, suppose religion vanishes. Would another authority having similar power take its place? Or would this sort of power vanish? It's too soon to tell, if ever, but the beginnings of an answer might lie in religious societies that abandon religion. For example, consider selective power in both Scandinavia and China, which have both mostly abandoned religion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_by_country

It is a learned behavior, not an evolutionary trait. Religion affects too many different ways to be decisively helpful or harmful. It inspires acts of violence, but also acts of love.

Some experts, think so, but in my opinion, much less than telling lies, abusing substances, watching TV and movies. A few religions are very helpful.