Can the proliferation of religions be analyzed Darwinistically?

Question

If so, explain what makes some religions flourish at the expense of other religions? Explain religion as a life form...

Answer 1

Good question.
Maybe the need for religion still answers one of our basic drives/instincts. There are so many different religions because there are so many different cultures, etc...
Just as species adapt to the availability of a specific food source, so people are adapting some some drive (perhaps survival instinct?) to be met with our various religions.

Hey, there's my 2 minute take on a question that probably deserves a lot more time than that.

Answer 2

Darwinistically?
Darwinistic
the Darwinian theory that species originate by descent, with variation, from parent forms, through the natural selection of those individuals best adapted for the reproductive success of their kind.
Yes this is true,this is not what we called evolution though. It is when people say that a man came from a monkey, and threw out the Bible and teach such false doctrine in our schools,That is where we mostly draw the line.

Answer 3

Rational choice theory. This would make them essentially economic decisions (though not necessarily in the strict financial sense). Yet this is not necessarily Darwinistic. Such notions of natural selection could be used to modify how rational choices are made.

Rodney Stark is one of the better known sociologists of religion. He uses Rational Choice Theory and economics to interpret the rise and fall of various religions (or sects).

Answer 4

Religions flourish when they are used by secular political authorities for their own ends hence Christianity flourished because the Romans used it as a means of pacifying their subject peoples.

Answer 5

Organised religions are mutual support structures that can ensure the survival of their members. This was particularly true in the times when the poor relied heavily on the churches to provide them with food and medicine in hard times. Also in the absence of effective medical treatments the moral message of religions encoraged people to abstain from activities which would reduce their survival chances, like sexual promiscuity. Today religion is less likely to increase your survival chances. Some religions even allow you to blow yourself up.

Answer 6

the earliest known religions placed nature as central
the next step was worship of the earth mother, and of mothers and virgins
the next was sun worship
the next worship of the planets.
the next, worship of powerful country-conquoring men
the next, God thought He'd better set everyone straight.
After that, dog's religion was the next logical step.

Or are you actually wondering if single-celled creatures living in primordeal soup had some means of worshipping God? I don't think it can be traced without a written history. Everything is speculation up to that point. Perhaps man worshipped the written word/pictograph before anything else? What is sacred to one man is the demon to another. So it has been throughout the ages.

Answer 7

yes - those that are more organized, work hard to recruit, and that enforce penalties for noncompliance tend to do better. However, many smaller religions will evolve out of disenchantment with the larger for numerous reasons. Then the smaller become the larger and the cycle repeats itself.

Answer 8

religions are just principles and morals that you believe in along with whomever else may have the same as you,which comes to everyone does not believe in the same things,and we all think that our belief is the best so........we do as we think to do.I myself do not worry about whether or not im religios its about my relationship with God.

Answer 9

Dawkins does this in The God Delusion.

Answer 10

Yes, you only have to look how Christianity succeeded in Roman times.

Edit:

Well ones that called for unbelievers to be killed and apostates to be executed would do fairly well, do we know any like that I wonder?