For example, it’s obviously useful to notice paw prints (a pattern) laid by a lion planning to eat you (an intention), and to deter the predator with tactics others have successfully used (imitation, at least before you could read how-to online). It describes religion in a way that is fundamentally atheistic in character, without belief in gods, corporeal spirit or life after death. Writing is thought to have been first invented in either Sumeria or Ancient Egypt and was initially used for accounting. ), it is alleged, Israel evolved the concept of a personal God. This problem can be overcome by anchoring these supernatural beings in material form through representational art. Evolution already has influenced religion, particularly Christianity. Still another view, proposed by F.H. Again, the theory has no basis in fact. This is because they deal with events that occurred prior to human history. Writing also brought a measure of objectivity to human knowledge. In this article we will briefly survey some of the ways evolutionary theory has affected the way many people view the Bible. evolution isnt needed to explain how abstract thought and imagination are possible, biology is.. as for where life/conciousness came from, evolution doesnt claim to know that... i believe religion comes from the fact that we are probably the only creatures who understand that death is a part of life.. Thus, it could be concluded that sacred scriptures or oral traditions created a behavioral pattern that elevated biological fitness for believing individuals. Neanderthal burial sites include Shanidar in Iraq and Krapina in Croatia and Kebara Cave in Israel.[43][44][44][45]. The evolutionary origin of religions and religious behavior is a field of study related to evolutionary psychology, the origin of language and mythology, and cross-cultural comparison of the anthropology of religion. [8] The number of costly sacrifices that a religious commune demanded from its members had a linear effect on its longevity, while in secular communes demands for costly sacrifices did not correlate with longevity and the majority of the secular communes failed within 8 years. [27], Stories of these experiences are especially likely to be retold, passed on and embellished due to their descriptions of standard ontological categories (person, artifact, animal, plant, natural object) with counterintuitive properties (humans that are invisible, houses that remember what happened in them, etc.). If you are a Zinio, Nook, Kindle, Apple, or Google Play subscriber, you can enter your website access code to gain subscriber access. These reasons included: These scientific theories were first put forward in the 19th century, when Christianity was an important influence on people's lives and the way they thought. [19] For instance, many cultures have developed methods to make toxic plants edible (like Aboriginal Australians processing poisonous seeds of cycad plants). This would suggest that natural selection should act against religious behavior unless it or something else causes religious behavior to have significant advantages.

Furthermore, one must understand how the tool would be used, that requires an understanding of causality. The consequences of the neolithic revolution included a population explosion and an acceleration in the pace of technological development. Moreover, the vicarious death of Jesus was in the mind of God long before there were paganistic sacrificial rites (Genesis 3:15; cf. And that is what offends most religiously-minded people.

These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. He also compares belief in God to belief in other minds, and devotes a chapter to looking at the evolutionary psychology of atheism. Yet another view is that the behavior of people who participate in a religion makes them feel better and this improves their fitness, so that there is a genetic selection in favor of people who are willing to believe in religion.
However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. Any social formation or practice that was to be widely accepted by the masses needed to provide a means of managing such terror. His study indicates that only after the speciation event is the neocortex large enough to process complex social phenomena such as language and religion.

Our closest primate relative, chimpanzees show some degree of ToM. He suggests that one of the fundamental mental modules in the brain is the Hyperactive Agency Detection Device (HADD), another potential system for identifying danger.

", "Religion and Health: New Research Revives an Old Debate", http://longevity.about.com/od/longevityboosters/a/religion_life.htm, "Religion's evolutionary landscape: counterintuition, commitment, compassion, communion", "On the compatibility of terror management theory and perspectives on human evolution", "Functional Origins of Religious concepts", Stewart Guthrie Faces in the clouds A New Theory of Religion, Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, Religious thought and behaviour as by-products of brain function, Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion By Todd Tremlin, Is Religion Adaptive?

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