The Evolution of Religion

The Evolution of Religion

For a good read on the subject, click the url at the bottom. The following is 5 paragraphs I exerted from the article to “get you curious” enough to read it.

The ability to build tools in order to achieve an end goal is only one adaptation that might have predisposed us to cultural and religious beliefs. After all, chimps are capable of making-tools, learning from other chimps, and employ goal-directed behavior. A significant adaptation that guided the course of human evolution has been our capacity to view the world through the eyes of another -- known as 'theory of mind'. This ability, which allows us to attribute mental states such as beliefs and desires to others, and intentions that differ from our own [*2], is so complex, it does not fully develop in children until around the age of four [*3]. While some scientists argue that our closest cousins, the chimpanzees, possess some abilities to perceive the intentions of others -- it is humans who have honed this ability to a fine art.

What does this have to do with religion? As our ancestors developed a sensitivity to the thoughts of others as an aid to second-guessing their outward and visible behavior, they would have started to see an intelligent creative force wherever they looked. An individual watching another chip away at a flint would attribute to him a purpose, similar to his own when he created a tool. So too would he assume that lightning, rain, the sun, the stars, the moon must have had some sort of purposeful creative force behind them. Here lie the very deepest roots of our religious beliefs.
(snip)

Modern science, particularly modern biology, has given us the freedom to shuck off the idea that our existence and the existence of the universe requires an intelligent being. In fact, as Richard Dawkins pointed out in The God Delusion, invoking an intelligent being doesn't explain anything -- it just pushes the question back to 'Who designed the designer?' Despite the illogic of believing that some great being in the heavens, capable of creating not only the laws of physics, the principles of evolution, and the vastness of time also cares a great deal about whether or not you use your left hand to clean up after defecating, eat a cracker while sinless, or not mix cheese with chicken, we still seem to sup it up like mother's milk.

The reason religion is so successful is that it taps into our primal-brains in much the same way that a Big Mac does -- only more so. Religion gained its foothold by hijacking the need to give purpose at a time when humans had only their imagination -- as opposed to the evidence and reason that we have today -- to fathom their world. Spirits and demons were the explanation for illnesses that we now know are caused by bacterial diseases and genetic disorders. The whims of the gods were why earthquakes, volcanos, floods and droughts occurred. Our ancestors were driven to sacrifice everything from goats to one another to satisfy those gods.
(snip)

Religion needs to be taken seriously. Understanding its roots, how it can seize command of our psychology and take control of our culture, may well be one of the most important endeavors we pursue. For even with all our grand technology, modern medical advances, and volumes of knowledge, if we do not stop our archaic past from overriding our modern reason we are surely doomed.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,3534,n,n

I, personally, believe religion evolved as a tool to keep the poor from lynching the rich.

I, personally, believe religion evolved tens of thousands of years ago when everyone was poor. Being rich in those times would be having something to eat and not being eaten day after day.

That is how it started, not how it evolved.

No, that would be when it started, ...... started evolving.

And the reason it started evolving was because humans evolved to the point where they became inquisitive about the "happenings" in their environment and began questioning "why they happened".

And things they couldn't figure out a "reason for" ......... they created a "reason for" to appease their curiosity.

And when humans started banding into groups, tribes, etc., ..... the "job" of shaman or witchdoctor was created, primarily because there were more people asking questions ...... and there had to be an "authority" to answer all those questions and to keep everyone straight.

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Religion almost certainly started as an attempt to explain and understand the world around us.

Religion became a tool to control the populace. The history of the RC church (and they are far from alone) serves as a prime example of this.