Any trait that remains in humans must have been beneficial to our survival. For religions to be so common around the world, it must have confered some kind of survival advantage.
Can anyone explain how it is possible?
2006-10-30 00:31:23 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I would have thought it was a psychological issue. Needing to believe there was something more, that you are not alone. Early Pagan religions had many gods for many different things, they could not explain everything with science like we do so a lot of their world was mysterious to them, Gods were just a way to explain why things happened, good or bad.
EDIT: All humans will try and explain somethign strange, its in our nature, imagine living in a world where you couldnt explain anything, wouldnt it be easier to explain it all with Gods, magic etc
2006-10-30 00:35:14 · answer #1 · answered by Claire O 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I keep seeing answers about how religion is the cause of wars and things, but I disagree completely. They act as if without religion, everyone will act exactly the same and there will be no wars. If there was no religion, people will find SOME excuse to start wars, whether it's for oil or any other petty material or other thing. So you can't blame religion for wars. People also mention about terrorism. Terrorism is not something that is allowed in Islam, but people just probably read things the wrong way and assume that it's right. Assuming that bad people only come from religion is just stupid. What about all the non religious paedophiles, murderers etc? You can't say they were influenced by religion. Religion has kind of brought morals into our world as I think some people will probably have mentioned. I'm not saying that atheists get all their morals from different religions but they are somewhat influenced by religious morals in some way. So these morals have influenced our society over the years and have become, in a way, unwritten rules for people living their lives, religious or unreligious. I hope that made sense.
2016-03-19 01:41:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ultimately, a closely-bound community is an evolutionary advantage to all the members. It's in each individual's interests to act selfishly, but it's in the interest of the group as a whole to act cooperatively.
Anything that can break that stalemate (ie religion) is likely to be preserved through generations, even if it has certain lesser disadvantages or inefficiencies.
2006-10-30 00:47:36 · answer #3 · answered by wimbledon andy 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Imagination has many evolutionary advantages. As does curiosity. Religion is an unfortunate byproduct of imagination and curiosity. People are unsure as to what causes certain things, and when their efforts to find out fail they make someone up.
2006-10-30 00:33:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
There's no reason that the trait that conveys a benefit to us needs to be religious belief. Humans have evolution-conferred traits such as "fear of outsiders", "desire for control over the natural world", "preference for stories over data in understanding the world", "preference for intentional explanations over nonintentional ones", and "deeply emotional attachment to offspring".
These human traits form the environment for our beliefs, and our beliefs evolve within that environment. Successful religions have adapted to us, and the evolutionary advantage of religion is _for religion_, not for the person holding that religion.
In other words, the advantage to us is in the traits by which we understand the world and cope with family/nonfamily. Religion survives because it evolves to work with us, not because it grants believers any particular survival advantage.
2006-10-30 00:50:02 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Does not necessarily follow, it could be the by-product of something else that was beneficial. But I would agree that anything that encourages an in-group vs an out-group would be beneficial to the in-groups survival.
2006-10-30 00:34:22 · answer #6 · answered by fourmorebeers 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The first sign a species is becoming sentient is when they have evolved to the point where they can abstract enough to invent a god. The first time a species achieves sentient maturity is when the get rid of their gods.
2006-10-30 00:46:41 · answer #7 · answered by iknowtruthismine 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
religon is a shallow word to use. but whatever it is, it refers to spiritual matters. since we are all spirit with a soul in a body, we need the spiritual realm not just to survive but to either live abundantly and eternally.
we need a personal relationship with God(the giver of life) to do just that.
i dont see where evolution comes in.
2006-10-30 00:53:19 · answer #8 · answered by ekduin 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋