After tens of thousands of years, religion continues to be pervasive, yet a comprehensive cognitive theory of religion remains lacking as academics cannot agree if religion is an accidental byproduct or an evolved adaptation. Darwin’s Apple proposes a new hypothesis for the origin and purpose of religion within the incontrovertible theory of evolution that finally explains how religion is adaptive. It describes how religion genetically evolved through the co-evolution of religion, ritual, and advanced human cognition, and why it endures, even in our rational, modern society.