What is the evolutionary advantage to religion?

I've known some laid-back guitar players ... but this is sexual selection in operation. It may be linked to religious behavior (co-evolved trait?)but why does religion persist in this day and age? it must have some survival or reproductive benefit.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

like smoking pot? just because something persists does not mean it has a genetic benefit. genocide can't possibly be an evolutionary positive. and yet my dear president is dipping his toes in.

but my e-mail notification on this thread has not been working, and this one fell in the cracks.the question is {{what is the advantage today of religion such that it continues to persist in all societies in one form or another?}}enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

My two cents...I see religion working as an evolutionary advantage in two ways, firstly at the individual level and secondly at the society level. But first I’d like to touch on my opinion on how religion and the concept of gods originated.Going back to the early days of humans, there would have been a time when some people would have begun to experience the first stirrings of self-awareness and curiosity. They may have looked at them selves and their surroundings and wondered where it all came from. Not having the knowledge of science, the world and the universe that we have today, a thinking person of the times may have thought along these lines: What made me and all around me? I and other people can create and control things. We can plant and grow things in the ground for food. We can make tools and build shelter. We can domesticate animals. We can create fire. Therefore, something like me but much bigger and more powerful must have created us. After the birth of this idea of powerful beings called gods, it would logically follow that some people would think their creator(s) would want them to behave and live in a certain way. Such ideas would be formulated by a small number of ‘enlightened’ individuals. Most of the general population around them, who have no education and very basic thoughts, needs and wants, would simply believe what they’re told. It seems a lot still do today!So that is my basic theory on the origin of religion, now back to the topic at hand. On an individual level, religion is largely about belief. Religious people often call it Faith. A human’s brain is an organ of the body, and therefore it must operate in a way that allows the human to survive. Thoughts, emotions and feelings are basically due to the movement of chemicals through the brain, as a result of reacting to outside stimulus. The feeling of faith is a powerful ‘fuel’ (for want of a better term) to keep someone going through a life of hard work, adversity and hardship. It is a good motivator to keep working for the good of ones family and society. Think of it like a car. You put fuel in a car and it can be driven, but after a while the engine will eventually wear out. However, if you take care of the engine, maybe add one of those fuel additives which helps to make the engine run better and more efficient, it will last longer. Faith is like the fuel additive, the car can’t run on it alone but combined with fuel it makes the car work much better. Similarly, the presence of faith in a human brain keeps it working better and can help to withstand the adversities that life presents.Individual people are the basic components of a group. It therefore follows that when those individuals are faithful and are working together cohesively, the group or society will be stronger and better protected from outside threats. It is possible that in early human history, groups formed that were not united by any kind of belief system, rather just basic survival instincts. These groups would not have so much cohesion and probably split up and died out, while those united by faith lived on. Picture a group threatened by an angry mammoth. A cohesive group would most likely stand together and fight or collectively decide to retreat, either way the group maintains its integrity. A less cohesive group would possibly split and run away with an ‘every-man-for-himself’ type of attitude.Oh, by the way this is my first post here and I am a beginner to this general subject, so hi to everyone. I am an atheist, and this post does not necessarily reflect my personal views on religion, it’s purely my thoughts on how it could be an evolutionary benefit like the topic asks. Hopefully I’ve made sense!I’m a newbie, so be nice. A happy 2005 to all.Thor

What you've said makes sense to me. Better than anything that I've been able to come up with.Welcome.

Well, Lam, you are mighty ignorant.

Why thank you.

OHH someone touched on group bonds ^_^.
thor i like you explanation on how religion helps to keep us united by giving us a common goal to strive for.but each of our attempts to explain the evolutionary advantage of religions are just peices. the evolution of the ability to creat religion (rather than just evolving religion) does more than just allow us to group together... nor does it just let us stay oblivious to death.
it does both... it functions in multiple ways... like the penis the penis acts like a sperm displacement device as well as a fertilizing tool. manny things that we evolved are intricatly connected to maximize our survival abilities.so take these opinions (or some of em) and link them together and you have your answer.

and welcome to the fray.I will break this into two responses to keep one on topic ...first the off-topic side thread: I think you are missing an obvious first step of assigning the vagaries of life’s experiences to spirits: all the early religions are pantheistic, with different spirits personifying different aspects, from the god of thunder (thor) to the jester (loki), we see similar themes in different such religions ("raven" is the north-american loki).Later these evolve so that one become the head cheese, and then the only cheese (and one has to believe in cheeses .... {{okay, I had to get that pun out of my system ...}} )All religions have evolved from earlier versions, and the earliest are lost in the mists of time — the mother-goddess figures (used as an avatar here by one of the admins) is one such, but there are also fertility figures from the regions where Hinduism developed that are nothing more than 10 foot tall phallic posts ... There is also some evidence in the {evolutionary psychology} field that (early) religions need a psychotic (bipolar\schizoid) type to seed the formation, as well as those willing to take advantage of such for their purposes (think oracles and priests).See Political and Social Science for more on this thinking. I had another site, but the link is no longer working .Go on to my other reply for the issue on topic ... ( I have edited this to provide the link -- it is http://EvC Forum: Transitional Forms)Enjoy.This message has been edited by RAZD, 01-01-2005 18:50 AM

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

You called?

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Asgara
"Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever....but get over it"http://asgarasworld.bravepages.com
http://perditionsgate.bravepages.com

Picking up where my other reply (click) left off ... with a response for the on topic part: I don’t think your car analogy works that well, at least not for explaining the ability of atheists to operate at the same level or better (less distracted?) in the matter of understanding the universe.Perhaps it is (originally) more like mental training \ rehearsal of response to predictable situations so that when they occur the solution doesn’t have to be re-invented. Certainly all the major religions also have many anecdotes, the stories of battles won and lost and the trials set for hero’s to {attempt\prevail} in addition to the mythological tales of supernatural abilities (such as how Odin got his wisdom and the trade he made for his all-seeing vision).Thus it fills a need to provide a basic behavior training for a social species in addition to the let’s all work from the same manual in making this car work aspect.This {benefit\operation} means that any other system that provides the same {benefit\operation} would replace it in a social structure. Thus public education systems are a threat to religions, and more educated people are less religious? That would be a testable hypothesis, eh? The same manual aspect mentioned above. Agreed. But again, any alternative, such as a cohesive political party affiliation could also accomplish the same benefit: a fully democratic society dedicated to the values of the country as written in their constitution, for instance. Certainly people that believe in a better afterlife are not afraid to die for a cause, but how does that work today? This is more in the line of how it developed, rather than the current {survival\reproductive} benefit in modern society: religion must still be a motivating force in society for it to survive as a feature of society without atrophying. Yes, personal beliefs are irrelevant to the question. Thanks for your input. Enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

ah the mother goddess watches over all ....

It's pretty obvious to me.You can be a believer in the Absolute, or you can be a nihilist.There's really nothing in between.Nihilism has its pleasures, of course. One can be very ironic in regard to the believers, as I often am.Or one can tease the non-believers with their hypocrisy, the way they can be very righteous about a matter when there is no such thing as righteousness.But that's about all the pleasure you can get out of nihilism...

hmmm, so that would make you an absolutist nihilist?what about an apatheist -- someone who doesn't know and doesn't care?

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
{{{Buddha walks off laughing with joy}}}

I know and I care.