Evolution of religious beliefs
I was wondering if religious beliefs have evolved in a negative or positive way.
People used to worship inanimate things like trees, rocks etc
Then they eventually realized it was rather silly so they decided to worship the sun, fire and other more impressive things.
Now that people know more about these things, therefore removing the awe effect, people are worshiping something they cannot even see.
Is this progress?
Re: Evolution of religious beliefs
Originally posted by Bicnarok
I was wondering if religious beliefs have evolved in a negative or positive way.People used to worship inanimate things like trees, rocks etc
Then they eventually realized it was rather silly so they decided to worship the sun, fire and other more impressive things.
Now that people know more about these things, therefore removing the awe effect, people are worshiping something they cannot even see.
Is this progress?
Trading one delusion for another delusion is not progress.
But why do people and lets face it theres a lot of them, need something to worship. It can´t just be the influence of some book like the Bible or Koran, as ages ago there weren´t any books.
Did someone some day just decide to worship something because he was having a bad day, and it caught on?
Or is it built into our genes, DNA in some way that we think there´s something else above us.
maybe it was genetically engineered by some alien bio engineers to keep us down.
Originally posted by Bicnarok
But why do people and lets face it theres a lot of them, need something to worship. It can´t just be the influence of some book like the Bible or Koran, as ages ago there weren´t any books.Did someone some day just decide to worship something because he was having a bad day, and it caught on?
Or is it built into our genes, DNA in some way that we think there´s something else above us.
maybe it was genetically engineered by some alien bio engineers to keep us down.
Religion gives people an evolutionary advantage. It gives them control over their lives (even if it is a false control). This control allows them to have less stress and a better life, and this better life allows them to survive better.
Originally posted by ShakyamunisonI educate myself to know which is the best method of life, and go by it.
Religion gives people an evolutionary advantage. It gives them control over their lives (even if it is a false control). This control allows them to have less stress and a better life, and this better life allows them to survive better.
Originally posted by Bicnarok
So its a built in advantage to have some sort of belief. Interesting🙂
Let me split hairs for a moment:
The problem here is that, for the human mind, all things we know are the same "thing". So be it belief or rational thought, our memories are the same. So, to say "there is a built in advantage to belief" is a little bit of a misnomer.
However, as this pertains to religion, there are types of belief that may enable us to have a higher survival rate. For instance, believing that snakes are poisonous, without personally testing every snake you see, can be a survival advantage, and in fact, there is research that shows a fear of snakes or spiders may have a genetic root.
When it comes to religion, I think it is an exascerbation of a much more fundamental function of our brains. For instance, if I hear something fall behind me, I understand that there must have been a cause to that action. Now, lets go back millions of years to the first proto-mammals (it was probably even earlier than this, but whatever). You have an animal running through the woods. It hears something behind it. There are many possible behaviours, but lets just say it has the option of assuming there is a creature making that sound, or investigating the nature of the sound. Clearly, the animal that assumes the noise was made by a predator will have the advantage, since it will be eaten less. This is really crude, but its sort of how I see most things about how and why we believe; its based off ancient systems of survival of the fittest. We have not been blessed with a brain any more powerful than it absolutly needed to be.
Originally posted by inimalist
Let me split hairs for a moment:The problem here is that, for the human mind, all things we know are the same "thing". So be it belief or rational thought, our memories are the same. So, to say "there is a built in advantage to belief" is a little bit of a misnomer.
However, as this pertains to religion, there are types of belief that may enable us to have a higher survival rate. For instance, believing that snakes are poisonous, without personally testing every snake you see, can be a survival advantage, and in fact, there is research that shows a fear of snakes or spiders may have a genetic root.
When it comes to religion, I think it is an exascerbation of a much more fundamental function of our brains. For instance, if I hear something fall behind me, I understand that there must have been a cause to that action. Now, lets go back millions of years to the first proto-mammals (it was probably even earlier than this, but whatever). You have an animal running through the woods. It hears something behind it. There are many possible behaviours, but lets just say it has the option of assuming there is a creature making that sound, or investigating the nature of the sound. Clearly, the animal that assumes the noise was made by a predator will have the advantage, since it will be eaten less. This is really crude, but its sort of how I see most things about how and why we believe; its based off ancient systems of survival of the fittest. We have not been blessed with a brain any more powerful than it absolutly needed to be.
But our brains are far more powerful then we need. How do you account for that?
Originally posted by inimalist
going to the moon is the same principle as gorillas using a long stick to test water depth, we have writing and thousands of years of such experimenting.
😕 What?
What I am saying is that religion exists because those who had religion in their society survived to pass it along to their children.
Originally posted by Jbill311
It is possible that religion is just a side effect of a mechanism that actually does have survival value (see Richard Dawkins).All we need is to be able to get food and stay warm, but we have gone to the moon and invented calculus.
Who says that we don't need to go to the moon?
I don't know. That wasn't the point I was trying to make. 😄