What is the evolutionary advantage to religion?

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what I want to know is what is the advantage given by religion(s) that allows it to pesist.

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For the purveyor of snake oil, the fruits of other peoples legitimate labours. Thats all. We often think that religion has to be advantageous to the whole society, but it does not.

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See Political and Social Science for more on this thinking. I had another site, but the link is no longer working .

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Well it looked interesting at first but makes remarks about Marx that are simple errors of fact. This is on top of gross errors of projection, IMO. Pretty poor really.

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(2) Unscrupulous, self-interested people who are quite willing to put on the cloaks and public attitudes in order to get an easy ride off the rest of the people (who do all the hard work). These people do not even need to be genetically linked, as the willingness of people to be unscrupulous is well documented across the board, around the world, and from highest peak to deepest valley.

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... that's if I was cynical.

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Embrace your cynicism. As I mentioned way back, we do NOT have to look at religion as if it had to provide a benefit to the whole society. It can prevail within the society even if it benefits only a minority group, if that minority group have sufficient social authority to establish and maintain it.Secondly, I think there is an instinct to "group think" one might say, or at least self-reflection based on feedback from your peers. Religion is one manifestation of this reinforcing cultural group identity, not the first or precursor or origin of such psychological modes IMO.

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I really don't understand what religion has to do with "group think."

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Religion is a personal matter.

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Which religious groups do NOT proselytise?I can think of the Jains and the Quakers any others? Both of them have specific doctrinal oppositions to proselytizing, and are the exceptions to the norm.That simple observation of bvasic group dynamics aside, the fact of thre matter is I can still predict the religious leanings of a given individual to about 80% accuracy at least just by nkowing the group memberships of their parents at the time of birth. Think about it, its almost relenltlessly relibal, and in some societies would be near 100% predictability.Religion is most definitely a group thought. It is most definitely a SOCIAL, not an individual, phenomenon. Religion is not and never can be an individual matter - it always a PUBLIC matter, because it is in fact politics by other (dishonest) means.

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The most sexually oriented species on the planet, bar none. Also the least aggressive primate.

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What about the dolphins? They seem to engage in a lot of sex-play too, to the point of "frolicking" with humans, according to some reports.