Does religion fulfill an evolutionary need for community in our world which is increasingly hectic & detached?

Question

That, or some inherent fear of death are the only reasons I can think of as to why anyone would follow such absurd stories in the 21st century.

Thoughts?

Age - I have no doubt that people have convinced themselves to believe it.

My question is based on the grounds that there is no logical reason to do so.

Libra - I hope you elaborate on your answer. I realize that early on, there was a tendency to shrug off the unknown and attribute it to deities.........but the obsession with churches and church attendence did not seem to arise at that point in history.

Answer 1

I think religion came out of an evolutionary development that allowed small tribes of territorial predatory humans to form into larger bands and settle into established villages. It continued to help people grasp natural events and help give them a sense of control over the uncontrollable. It also helped justify why people who ended up leading became rulers. Religion was a critical development that allowed early man to establish society. Now it is a leftover thing that serves little purpose. It is similar to the reason hippos are so aggressive. It was a critical development that has hung on long after it's usefullness has expired.

Answer 2

If you think this whole world is hectic and detached you have never been to Papua New Guinea. I was there for a while on a missions trip and they have no TV, alarm clocks or iPods. They have close knit families and communities. Yet religion is still very important. So your hypothesis is wrong.

If you think the Bible is just a bunch of absurd stories I recommend you read the entire Bible with an open mind and maybe check out some books by Lee Strobel.

Answer 3

Wee problem. It wasn't nonbelievers who were sacrificed (except in the context of war and that was at least as much about political identity as religion), it was the believers, or the sons and daughters of believers, who were murdered as sacrifices. Judaism emerged as a distinct religion, not just because of its monotheistic views, but because of its refusal to tolerate human sacrifice. I don't think that religion necessarily offered an evolutionary advantage other than group cohesion. Like you alluded to, I think it's much more a matter of it being a by-product of the filtering mechanisms that our brains use. This is a hugely important concept -- not all traits have direct evolutionary advantages. Even detrimental traits (like capacity for addiction) can be carried forward if they are connected to other traits that have significant enough advantage. Religion probably comes out of our brain's tendency to look for patterns and assign meaning. It's how we cope with the infinite amount of sensory data we encounter. Our initial patterns are often erroneous, but we have the ability to reprocess those patterns to improve their accuracy. That's how we learn. In terms of sacrifice, that most likely arose from our hard-wired tendencies towards linking an effect (famine, natural disasters, crop failure, bad hunt, etc.) with our behaviours - even when they're not -- and they making up narrations to turn it into a coherent whole. The learning is improving our understanding of cause and effect. Very early in the history of Judaism, someone recognized that sacrifice didn't actually improve group prosperity. Divine inspiration or a flash of human insight? I don't know and I'm not sure it entirely matters. We got there in the end. Like every other system of thought, religions can reinforce the patterns or they can help us learn to improve their accuracy. It's that capacity which is evolutionary advantageous, not its specific instances.

Answer 4

I've been thinking along these lines lately too. I'm a bit stuck, because, to me, the mental process involved with believing in things like luck, omens, truth in old sayings etc is the same mental process as believing that telepathically talking to a 2000 year old Jewish zombie will grant you eternal after life in heaven. It's just magnified is all.

And the thing is, everybody, even the most skeptical amongst us would hold onto an illogical belief such as luck. So my conclusion is that, only a machine (capable of AI of course) is capable of a purely logical perception of reality.

Answer 5

Religion gives some people comfort. A large majority of people have been following blindly since childhood...it never would occur to them to question or challenge their religion.

Churches do provide a valid sanctuary for many people...for some it is the only community they have. I personally couldn't belong to a group that not only condemned, judged, and rejected certain groups of people....but that also judges & condemns me! Fear and faith hold many of these religion communities together...the combination of those actually adds to our hectic nature and detachment in our world.

Answer 6

The fear of God killing us for not listening to Him is the same as the fear we have for our father killing us when he comes home and finds out what we did while he was gone. This isn't made up religion. It is a fact. God exists and so does our father.

Answer 7

It does help with community, and the fear of death. But it's not following stories. Do you honestly think that all people who believe, do so on blind faith in stories? God makes himself clearly known to people who seek him.

Answer 8

Of course you think it's absurd, and that's because you haven't met your creator yet. I have. Millions of Christians around the world have. We talk to him every day and guess what? He talks back. Either we're all seriously schizophrenic or there's more to this "God" business than meets the eye. My doctor gives me a clean bill of health (well, aside from that pesky low blood pressure). ;)

Answer 9

It is so hectic because of religion. Throughout history too, just look at the middle ages.

Answer 10

It might at this point. Originally, it was created to answer all of the questions humans couldn't answer. Now that we're answering most of them it's a bit silly to believe in fantasy.