ogon writes:
Much of human life in all corners of the Earth, over vast periods of time, has believed in the supernatural. Whether it be spiritual ancestors, weather gods, suns gods, messiahs. Whether it be primitive Africans, native Americans, sacrificing Aztecs, Christians.
Yeah, the human (and, to an extent, animal) brain can do that.
ogon writes:
Is religion then judged to be part of mans evolution?
Yes. Supernatural beliefs are just a product of the way our brain works. We do not have a brain that obeys 'Ockham's Razor'. When you walk down the hallway at night and see a humanoid shadow, your brain instantly interprets that as an intruder (or, if you were a child or superstitious, a monster). When you hear the wind whistling through the caverns, you think someone is talking.
This behaviour is common to most animals, and of course evolved that way. Think about it - which animal has the best survival chance
a) An animal that attributes everything slightly unusual to a predator creature
b) A animal that only acts when it has proof of a predator's existence.
Of course, it is better to jump at shadows just in case than to ignore the shadow and be killed. This is one reason why there are elves, pixies, leprechauns, poltergeists, banshees etc.
I could also go into the neurobiology of the near death experience, but I won't yet. Suffice it to say that the light at the end of the tunnel and feeling of warmth are not supernatural, but neurological.
ogon writes:
If mankind evolved in ways that guaranteed his survival, hunting, gathering, reproducing, what role did the belief in the supernatural and subsequently religion play in this evolution?
Well, belief in the supernatural could play a part in healing. Shamanic rituals worked mostly on hypnosis and the placebo effect, and so if you aren't gullible, you would probably die if sick or injured.
Religion, being organised, has a benefit for an agricultural city state too. When you expand beyond your little village into a city, you have more people than humans are used to. This could, and still does, cause tension among the various groups. But, those city states that had a common religion among their people would feel a bond of kinship, and thus those states would thrive. However, this kinship does also come with the side-effect of xenophobia and religious violence.
ogon writes:
Is it only now with the establishment of science that religion is seen as a tail no longer needed or used? Or am I way off course?
Well, we no longer use the supernatural explanation for things. But that wasn't the 'purpose' of religion anyway. We could also do without the violent tendencies.
We also have medical science, so don't require gullibility to be cured by placebo.
That's not to say they will die out - there are still creationists who believe that the world was created recently, and scientologists - case in point.
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