[highattainlet]

An interesting story from NPR. I don't buy the whole story, but thought it would be interesting what others think of it.

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR
Through the lens of evolution, a belief in God serves a very important purpose: Religious belief set us on the path to modern life by stopping cheaters and promoting the social good.

[EbrsaRynleot]

An interesting story from NPR. I don't buy the whole story, but thought it would be interesting what others think of it.

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? : NPR

It's certainly socially advnatageous. I'll have to ponder the evolution aspect.

[JRixlcvF]

I don't think religious belief stopped us from cheating on each other. I was listening to Point of Inquiry last weekend and they had an author in who wrote a book on how cooking changed us - one of those things was that it made a partnership advantageous for the male because he did not have to waste time preparing food, and the female would be granted security in exchange.

[extessarere]

It's certainly socially advnatageous.

ain't that the truth!

[avarberickibe]

I don't think religious belief stopped us from cheating on each other.

No, it hasn't. It just makes us feel better when we can say we did it for our religion's or god's sake. of course, "my religion is better than yours" has led to much cheating and violence in the past and the present (and no doubt in the future as well).

sometimes, we invent whole new religions just to make us feel better about ourselves and/or justify what we do...Henry VIII, for example...

[Inenuedbabnor]

sometimes, we invent whole new religions just to make us feel better about ourselves and/or justify what we do...

Or because we are huge L Ron hubbard fans.

[911_993_911]

Of course, religion also helps one to exclaim, "But I'm not worried!" in the face of all the injustice in the world, and mean it!

YouTube - MAHALIA JACKSON=WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS

And even Gandhi often would say to reporters when asked where he gets his energy to keep on keeping on, that he found solace and strength in his religion and were it not for that he would go mad for witnessing all the suffering of his people.

[Peptobismol]

The part of this question that I am struggling with is whether a predisposition to believe in religion is a cause or an effect. What I mean is whether belief in religion is some kind of primary characteristic - something that might manifest itself in an infant, like, say, an appropriate fear of heights, or a predisposition to understand and use language.

Or is it a side effect, perhaps of something like our instinctive tendency to find patterns (which is so strong that it often leads us to find patterns where there are none), or of our instinctively social nature, where we tend to think in terms of alpha-males in the tribe (if you have a boss, it stands to reason there is an even bigger boss out there that he answers to, or something of that nature).

In either case, I could imagine evolutionary consequences from a belief in religion, but what I am trying to work through is whether it is religion itself that drives those consequences or whether something else drives it and religion just comes along as a side-effect, albeit a powerful side effect.

any thoughts?

[Jannet.K]

The part of this question that I am struggling with is whether a predisposition to believe in religion is a cause or an effect. What I mean is whether belief in religion is some kind of primary characteristic - something that might manifest itself in an infant, like, say, an appropriate fear of heights, or a predisposition to understand and use language.

Or is it a side effect, perhaps of something like our instinctive tendency to find patterns (which is so strong that it often leads us to find patterns where there are none), or of our instinctively social nature, where we tend to think in terms of alpha-males in the tribe (if you have a boss, it stands to reason there is an even bigger boss out there that he answers to, or something of that nature).

In either case, I could imagine evolutionary consequences from a belief in religion, but what I am trying to work through is whether it is religion itself that drives those consequences or whether something else drives it and religion just comes along as a side-effect, albeit a powerful side effect.

any thoughts?

The way I took their statement was that people that were predisposed towards believing in a religion culled out people from the genetic strain that weren't predisposed towards such beliefs. Of course that argument probably heads towards the idea that believing in religion is a mental condition.


But on the surface, I am not comfortable with the argument that religion is what keep/kept people in line and working with each other. Humans, and most creatures, tend to be geared towards social activites that serve mutual advancement. Jackals don't hunt in packs because they believe in the Zebra Vengeance God nor do ants build tunnels because of the Ant Pharaoh. It seems an odd search for an answer for an activity that takes place in animals with significantly less developed thinking apparatus.

[Xqjfxmfk]

But on the surface, I am not comfortable with the argument that religion is what keep/kept people in line and working with each other. Humans, and most creatures, tend to be geared towards social activites that serve mutual advancement. Jackals don't hunt in packs because they believe in the Zebra Vengeance God nor do ants build tunnels because of the Ant Pharaoh. It seems an odd search for an answer for an activity that takes place in animals with significantly less developed thinking apparatus.

That's an ecellent point, and tends to point me more to the "side effect" explanation.

[GenManagerS]

Ad hoc evolutionary arguments of this type are worthless. Primarily because evolutions predicts absolutely nothing beyond "survivors survive."

Evolution explains why people don't cheat and why they do. Why people are nice and why they aren't. It really can work for anything.

There's really no end to this type of conjecture. And if the theory actually predicted something interesting, maybe this type of reasoning could be useful.