fundamental spawn

Remember religion is an evolutionary phenomenon which came about to moderate man's behavior. Cultures where there was care fo the elderly and ill, some fidelity in marriage, laws, etc. tended to survive. Part of the mechanism to "encourage" law abiding behavior was religion and it associated reward and punishment in the afterlife.

God does not exist, but if religion and the notion of a deity is needed by my neighbor to check his behavior, at this point in the evolutionary timeline it's fine with me.

nemesis855

The only problem is many Deists not only use their religion to check their behavior but to "check the behavior" of NONBELIEVERS as well.

Calzaer

If religion is/was an evolutionary advantage, would that mean suscecptibility to it is genetic?

And if so, doesn't that mean the Atheists will be out-bred and out-competed by the Catholics, since Atheists use birth control and Catholics outlaw it? Reproductive self-limitation would be a pretty heavy evolutionary selective criteria!

Unbeliever

I think that's exactly the reason they outlawed abortion, so they could out-breed their competitors! And not just atheists either, but all the other religions as well. That's probably why the Protestants jumped on the abortion bandwagon.

fundamental spawn

There is absolutely no question about it, propogation and a sort of "evangelism in reproduction" is a motivation.

I am more familiar with fundamental protestantism in which the "full quiver" has taken hold, especially in your non-denominational groups where homeschooling is strong. I have heard with my own ears the call to have large families in order to gradually take control, these people call it "dominion," over the earth.

Radcliffe Emerson

Yes, our wonderful president is trying even now with legislation to shatter the separation of church and government. Some other countries, such as England do not have separation of church and government.

Religion is not fine with me. My dream is to see religion in every form completely destroyed and gone, but I know that won't happen.
:banghead:

AsimovsProtege

I say we overthrow the governments!!

Down with religion!!!

sodium

That's an interesting theory, but I see a few problems.

1) Your not talking about an evolutionary phenomenon as in genetic evolution. We wouldn't expect to see genetic selection working at the level of societies.

2) From looking at the history, it doesn't appear that societies collapse because they refuse to look after their sick, or because of marital infidelity. Instead, the societies that have most prospered have been a mix of enough rationalism to understand the world and make reasonable choice, and enough militancy to expand at the expense of their neighbors.

Religion has tended to help with the militancy side, but hurt with the rationalism. Islam seems to have helped in creating an empire by increasing militancy, while Christianity helped in destroying one by decreasing rationalism.

Jobar

An interesting topic, but not EoG material- let's put it in CSS&A.

triplew00t

I hope you meant "theist" not "deist". A theist is any religious person, where as a "deist" is a specific type. Namely, one who believes in God, but conceives that God takes no real interest in our world and lets it run itself. He created, the He took a step back.

- In peace, Nero