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Can the study of human evolution provide answers to why people believe in God?

I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
 
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

The herd instinct is genetic isn't it?
 
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

The interesting part about this is that belief in God is due to an inherited trait, but belief in God is a byproduct of the trait, not the actual selected trait.

Some parts of our culture aren't necessarily selected for, but rather just things we do that emerge from how we think, and have no real raison d'être.
 
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

Evolution can select for genes that govern behavior as much as for genes that determine physical traits. In fact, some scientists think they've located a "God gene" that may cause some people who have it to believe in God.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

Evolution can select for genes that govern behavior as much as for genes that determine physical traits. In fact, some scientists think they've located a "God gene" that may cause some people who have it to believe in God.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that as I keep telling you, biological structures are still just physical structures. They have more bizarre mechanisms than say, a rock, but they are still just physical structures.

There is a physical structure that is, in fact, literally "belief in God" in the head of a god believer. It has a similar graph shape to the structures in others who "believe in God" and can be instantiated, through translation of physical inputs, through physical process, to another such graph.

It will ultimately serve the survival of any tribal structure for which "our tribe has a 'god' and makes us special and 'chosen'", as this reinforces the goals of the selfish gene to exclusively dominate resources though "divine right", short circuiting the empathy system when outsiders try to access it
 
Jarhyn said:
Not to mention that as I keep telling you, biological structures are still just physical structures. They have more bizarre mechanisms than say, a rock, but they are still just physical structures.
Click to expand...

Yes. That's correct. I know that biological structures are physical.

There is a physical structure that is, in fact, literally "belief in God" in the head of a god believer. It has a similar graph shape to the structures in others who "believe in God" and can be instantiated, through translation of physical inputs, through physical process, to another such graph.
Click to expand...

Now that I didn't know. A person's belief in God can be graphed? I do know that the brain's processes are physical, and therefore a belief in a God has a physical basis in the brain.

It will ultimately serve the survival of any tribal structure for which "our tribe has a 'god' and makes us special and 'chosen'", as this reinforces the goals of the selfish gene to exclusively dominate resources though "divine right", short circuiting the empathy system when outsiders try to access it
Click to expand...

I agree that particular groups of people look to Gods whom they believe favor them over other groups of people. So those Gods presumably favor the genes of their chosen peoples over the genes of other groups. As a result, the Gods people believe in fit well into the survival-of-the-fittest behavior required by natural selection.

It is interesting how those who deny evolution with their mouths live it with the rest of their bodies.

So what are we arguing about?
 
steve_bank said:
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

The herd instinct is genetic isn't it?
Click to expand...
Pardon?
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Tigers! said:
I would have thought that since evolution requires selection of an inheritable trait that has a physical manifestation it would not select for a belief in God which is not inheritable and has no physical manifestation.
Unless you accept that survival is due to being lucky rather than fit.
Click to expand...

Evolution can select for genes that govern behavior as much as for genes that determine physical traits. In fact, some scientists think they've located a "God gene" that may cause some people who have it to believe in God.
Click to expand...

That is interesting. Do you have a link?
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Yes. That's correct. I know that biological structures are physical.



Now that I didn't know. A person's belief in God can be graphed? I do know that the brain's processes are physical, and therefore a belief in a God has a physical basis in the brain.

It will ultimately serve the survival of any tribal structure for which "our tribe has a 'god' and makes us special and 'chosen'", as this reinforces the goals of the selfish gene to exclusively dominate resources though "divine right", short circuiting the empathy system when outsiders try to access it
Click to expand...

I agree that particular groups of people look to Gods whom they believe favor them over other groups of people. So those Gods presumably favor the genes of their chosen peoples over the genes of other groups. As a result, the Gods people believe in fit well into the survival-of-the-fittest behavior required by natural selection.

It is interesting how those who deny evolution with their mouths live it with the rest of their bodies.

So what are we arguing about?
Click to expand...

Well we are arguing over it with religious folks in most scenarios because just like being ignorant as you are flirting contributes to success of the behavior, being ignorant of the fact that "if every tribe is special, no tribe is special" is in part key to the success of the strategy.
 
Big cities have Little Italy, Chinatown, Jewish and other ethnic areas. Each proudly displaying the idea they are different.

I live on edge of Chinatown in Seattle.
 
Jarhyn said:
Well we are arguing over it with religious folks in most scenarios because just like being ignorant as you are flirting contributes to success of the behavior, being ignorant of the fact that "if every tribe is special, no tribe is special" is in part key to the success of the strategy.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you're saying here.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Jarhyn said:
Well we are arguing over it with religious folks in most scenarios because just like being ignorant as you are flirting contributes to success of the behavior, being ignorant of the fact that "if every tribe is special, no tribe is special" is in part key to the success of the strategy.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you're saying here.
Click to expand...

Having full and conscious awareness of certain things we do is detrimental to their success.

Being aware you are flirting makes flirting less successful.

Being aware that your divine right is not special reduces the potential for violent tribalness to transpire and confer the benefit of the divine right.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
In nature, in particular among our primate cousins, we may have some clues as to how and why theism evolved. In many species there is a pecking order in which the stronger and more dominant males have first access if not exclusive access to the females. In addition to animals like chickens and lions, gorillas exhibit this kind of behavior. The top male-silverback gorilla rules the roost keeping all other males away from the females unless, of course, another male gorilla defeats him wresting dominance and sexual access to those females away from him. As long as a male silverback is dominant, he maintains a God-like status in which all of the other gorillas in his group must bow to him. The transmission of that male's genes to the next generation is assured this way.

Religions like Judaism as well as Islam and Christianity have a lot of dos and don'ts regarding sexual activity. Married women, for instance, are expected to remain faithful to their husbands under pain of possibly severe penalty, and such a rule is encoded into the religion's scriptures presumably as revealed by that religion's version of God. Any violations of these rules are said to make violators subject to punishment by the all-powerful God who cannot be resisted. Any man who has sex with another man's wife will be punished by God along with her. God's prohibition of adultery helps to ensure that a man's wife or wives never get pregnant to other men safeguarding the married men's transmission of their genes to the next generation.

So it appears that if God does exist, then his laws regarding sex among humans are quite similar to what we see in nature. In humans as well as in other species like gorillas, gene transfer to offspring is more likely accomplished by stronger, more dominant males helping to ensure stronger offspring. Is this similarity just a coincidence, or is God that great silverback in the sky keeping a watchful eye on both male and female sexual activity to favor the stronger and dominant males passing their genes down to offspring? It seems to me that knowing how we evolved helps to explain why so many of believe in a dominant male God who lays down and supposedly enforces rules regarding how and with whom we have sex.
Click to expand...

In my way of thinking, it would be more useful if a man were a natural teacher. If I were a cis-woman, I would want a mating prospect to be somebody that was prepared to teach our offspring about the world. If a man were capable of teaching me a few new things, then I would be happy to give him at least a dozen children for whom he could do similar courtesy. Men who can tell stories that have useful lessons in them are particularly sexy to me, especially if they can succeed at making those stories funny and memorable.

I am more inclined to believe that human evolution explains why we build our cultures around storybooks.
 
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