What is really the root of religion is it faith or is it an evolution process that our ancestor use to survive

Question

humans work in packs or community because a pecking order based on strength and dominance has been established. When our ape like ancestor gradually became more intelligent individual can rationally begin to question the power of the leader. Intelligence by it nature, questions authority by reason, and hence could be dangerous, dissipative force on that community. individual will leave the tribes, and that tribe would fall apar, and eventually individuals would die so, a selection pressure was place on intelligent apes to suspend reason and blindly obey the leader and his myth, since doing other wise would challange the tribes cohesion. survival favored the intelligent ape who could reason rationally about tools and food gathering but also favored the one who could suspend that reason when it threatened the tribe integrity. A mythology was needed to define and preserve the tribe. Religion was a powerful tool that "glue" and held together the tribe. Religion is a genetic disorder

Answer 1

The root of all religions is Dharma (righteousness)... not faith! When not one religion existed on Mother Earth... the humanity still survived. How? Dharma is that inherent ingredient in the cosmic system which forms the sap of living form! Devoid of Dharma (righteousness) life simply could not exist on Mother Earth or in the Cosmos!

Let us go back in time about 3600 years before when Lord Krishna had not yet arrived! No Lord Krishna... the doctrine of Bhagavad Gita was absent! During the times of Lord Krishna not one religion existed on Mother Earth. Still humanity survived all hardships! What of the clergy claiming today... devoid of religion human beings reduce to the level of an animal!

It is not religion that forms the basis of life... it is spirituality... the ingrained spirit within every human being... our soul atman residing within our heart that forms the basis of life! It is our soul atman within that has manifested the human form to work out its karma... eradicate the impurities within similar as the metal in an ore needs an external medium to purify itself.

When no religion existed... the tree of Dharma that forms the basis of life existed in the cosmic system... on every life supporting planet! Dharma is that elixir vitae of the cosmic system which forms the basis of life in the Cosmos. It is Dharma and Dharma alone supported by which people about 3600 years before managed their day day-to-day affairs of life.

And what is Dharma? Our right to do what is just and right and not what was destined! One may follow a religion or not... all inherently follow the dictates of Dharma from within! Sooner Lord Krishna came into the scene... people started following the wisdom of Bhagavad Gita... the pearls of wisdom contained in the Sacred Bhagavad Gita!

About 1000 years later the tree of Dharma branched and descended Mahavira... the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism. Almost 77 years later the tree further branched and followed Gautama Buddha... the preceptor of Buddhism! About 423 years later followed Jesus Christ and finally came Prophet Mohammed. Till day the tree of Dharma keeps branching.

The prime reason why there are so many religions in this world. More on Dharma - http://www.godrealized.com/dharma_definition.html

Answer 2

I think you've got part of it right. There is a direct correlation between human's need for order and conformity and the physiology of our brains. The way our neurons are connected and our thoughts come about is akin to an office filing system. There are groups and subgroups and so on. This makes understanding and organizing info in our heads easier. The effect on our perception of reality is that we tend to try to organize reality and our social groups in this manner as well.

A side effect of our natural intelligence and curiosity is an insatiable need to know. The reality is that we cannot know everything and when our species was young, we knew even less. This drives people buggers. So they tend to make things up to explain phenomenon they can't understand.

These two traits, the need for order and the need to know, gave birth to religion. I wouldn't call religion a genetic disorder exactly, but I would say that religious believers sometimes lack a physical self awareness and indulge themselves in the comfort of order and absolute "truths."

Answer 3

Great question, something that many more people need to consider; the possibility that part of our bodies are evolutionarily conditioned to give us propensity to be more disposed to be religious beings. I definitely agree that the tendency of people to claim to believe in a god is an evolutionary byproduct, however, in your elaboration of how it might have worked there are a few misunderstandings. I'd like to point out some changes to what you have to say so that you can make a better case.

The description you provide bounces back and forth between "Group Selection" and standard Natural Selection. Group selection is very controversial and probably does not work as you state. For one point, think about what you mean when you say that these "intelligent apes" have "selection pressures" placed on them. What pressures, how and by what means? You are saying those actions (the consequences of being intelligent) might hurt the structure of the GROUP, and somehow that puts pressure on that individual ape? Think about how that could work...

Anyway here is another example of how "Religion" could be programmed into us by Evolution. Natural Selection mostly takes place at the level of the gene, not the group, not culturally, and not even at the level of the individual. So to say that "Religion" is an evolutionary "disorder" we need to show how "religion" is embodied by a gene, and then how the presence of that gene makes survival of the individual who possesses it more likely.

Genes cannot embody ideas, of course. There is no gene to which you can point and say "That is the religion gene, and if you have one you are going to be a religious person." DNA (composed of genes) is the "recipe" for making an organism. The physical expression, in the individual body, of what the recipe calls for is called a "phenotype". So what we are looking for, is a phenotypic consequence which makes us have a tendency to be religious, then look for how it could have arisen, through natural selection.

This is already getting too long, so let me just state it real quick, and anyone who wants to read more can check it out on my blog, http://simultangnostics.blogspot.com/

Emotions are caused by hard-wired patterns in our brains. This means genes CAN effect emotive tendencies, by telling our body to build the brain in a certain way. It is not religion directly which is evolutionary, but a tendency to feel certain emotive responses to certain sensations, which is hard-wired into the physiology of our brains by our genetic code. Individuals who had brains wired up to feel "religious emotions" were able to better cope with the complex issues which arose at the point when we developed a knowledge of death, and our own mortality. The religions developed alongside the genes as an "epigenetic" co-evolution of the memeplexes of religion and the phenotypic expressions of emotional dispositions which give the religious memes a strong foothold. That is perhaps how religion is evolutionary.

So again dude, I agree with your conclusion but not your premises. Anyone who wants more on this come read it.

Answer 4

I believe that early religion was based on the belief that many things that happened in the world (drought, flood, pestillence, crop failure etc) were out of the control of people, and a 'higher authority' must exist, which human beings could appeal to, for intervention. Early religion was very centred on such 'vegetative' ceremony.

As society and culture developed, humans learnt more and more to control their environment (irrigation, crop rotation, animal husbandry, etc). People became less dependent on divine intervention on a natural event scale, and learnt more and more about natural processes. However, that did not mean that they turned away from the need for religious fulfillment, but that they learnt to separate the natural world from the spiritual world.

Some fundamentalists still cling to an interventionist policy, and a literal interpretation of the bible; but I can never undestand why. Modern religion is centred on faith, on belief; and that should be sufficient.

Many practicing chrisitians are, I believe agnostic; in the sense that they believe it is not possible (or necessary) to prove the existence of a divine being; but it is essential to believe. That is why faith is such a cornerstone of modern religion, and the conflict between 'science' and religion or between 'evolution' and 'creationism' is entirely unnecessary.

Answer 5

I generally tend to prefer the idea postulated by way of Richard Dawkins -- that it wasn't such a lot a approach of manipulate on the begin, however a method of swiftly passing on priceless survival capabilities. If the kids of the tribe robotically be given recommendation from grownups like "Don't consume the ones berries; they are going to make you in poor health," or "Don't depart the cave after darkish -- it isn't trustworthy," it widely raises the possibilities of survival. The unlucky aspect end result, nevertheless, is that vain recommendation ("Kill a goat each and every spring so the gods will make it rain,") will get handed alongside simply as faithfully...

Answer 6

Your insights are all conditioned by your definition of religion, which is so vague, that it may well describe any cultural construct. Consider Rene Girard's "Violence and the Sacred" as a means of clarifying and developing your reasoning. Also, Walter Burkert wrote a treatise on the biological origins of religious practice called "The Creation of the Sacred."-- this might also help. However, as it is, your question and what follows, are simply an ideological assertion, rather than a rational argument.

Answer 7

I'll keep my answer short and sweet (and I'm sorry if I offend anybody):

Religion was made mainly for the superior classes to remain superior by pretending that through consumption, anybody is able to get to god.

I'm not saying that all religions are like this, I'm just mentioning some religions with that (yes, I believe in a relgion). Basically, if you look at every continent, religion was made for monetary purposes. In India, there was this class called Bramins (or something), and basically, they were the king pins because they were the priests. In Europe, the chain of beings? King represent god? Indulgences?

There are more examples, but I dont wanna write so much

Answer 8

Many religions are based on superstition and then a slightly higher form, ritual. The former calms the fears of living in a natural world. The latter points to a higher order. True religion is based on faith, not on superstition and ritual. Just as Judaism was ritual based, it pointed the way to the real justified faith of mankind, which he lost in his descent into the natural world and apehood, not his rise from it. True faith restores man to his true order, which is above the material and natural world into the spiritual realm, his true element.

Answer 9

You make a good proposition. I would like to add this. Most of the very religious people I have met are emotionally immature. A child is more likely to believe in magic. Like your theory, an immature adult is more likely to follow a father figure. So the genetic disorder can be seen as Immaturity.

Answer 10

The religious and atheists die, so no one's survival is impacted by this. However, religion often soothes the emotions of the majority of the population.

If you fear death, a god means you can have immortality.
If you fear rejection, a god will turn their back on you.
If you fear abandonment, a god will love you not matter what you do.
If you fear others, a god will give you a code to force others live by.

On and on, each religion provides for the emotional fears of a community.