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What do chimp ‘temples’ tell us about the evolution of religion?

 
 
 
Lion IRC said:
Juma said:
ever heard of buddism?
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Yep.
Do you know what a Brahma Deva is?
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You asked “Religion without God??? Even apes aren’t that stupid”.

Someone offered Buddhism as a religion without God, which is correct even if you find god-concepts among some adherents of that religion.

And what is a “Brahma Deva”? I know what Brahma is in Hinduism, I know what devas are among some Buddhists.

Religions (depending on how "religion" is defined) without "God" include also religious naturalists and arguably pantheists as well. The "religion without God???" exclamation seems to imply you think a creator god is a central concept to religion generally.
 
DBT said:
''If atheism is a religion then bald is a hair colour, ...''
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If atheism is a religion, then it is the Only True Religion.
 
Cheerful Charlie said:
If chimps evolved, why are there monkeys?
If Monkeys evolved, why are there tree shrews?
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While the evidence given is not conclusive, we don't know enough about the sentient nature of Chimps and could not rule out some kind of primitive curiousness and what exactly chimps are thinking. More observation of their behaviour would be desirable to try to verify the theory more or simply discount it. When did Man first start having religion? Was it at the exact point when he became a homo sapiens or earlier??
 
Let's not forget that not collecting stamps is a very popular hobby. When it comes to any discussion of stamp-collecting, it is clearly the most practiced variant.
 
joedad said:
Let's not forget that not collecting stamps is a very popular hobby. When it comes to any discussion of stamp-collecting, it is clearly the most practiced variant.
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And everyone who not-collects stamps, not-collects the American stamps almost to the exclusion of all other nations to not-collect.
 
Given that pigeons - not renowned for their intelligence - are superstitious, it should be no surprise that chimpanzees are too.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/

Of course there are plenty of other possible explanations for the chimpanzee behaviour than 'religion'; so the OP seems to say more about the mindset of the individual humans involved than it does about any other species of ape.

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a man with a mystery, everything looks like religion.

Archaeologists are infamous for using the phrase '...this was used for ritual or religious purposes', when what they really mean is '...no fucking idea what this was used for'.
 
bilby said:
Given that pigeons - not renowned for their intelligence - are superstitious, it should be no surprise that chimpanzees are too.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/

Of course there are plenty of other possible explanations for the chimpanzee behaviour than 'religion'; so the OP seems to say more about the mindset of the individual humans involved than it does about any other species of ape.

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a man with a mystery, everything looks like religion.

Archaeologists are infamous for using the phrase '...this was used for ritual or religious purposes', when what they really mean is '...no fucking idea what this was used for'.
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I'd like to know how my brain differs from a religious brain. I'd like to know how it's changed. I'd like to be able to quantify those changes physically, nuts and bolts. There is certainly something physically different and I wish we could expose the mystery.
 
Do differences in behavior necessarily mean there are differences in brain structure? Maybe the difference is in what a secularist's brain and a religious brain is just different value-inputs.

The religious often say “you have faith too” and “you have a god of some sort too”. And, maybe they’re not wrong except inasmuch as they’re implying there’s an equivalence of truth between whatever secular item you put into the place where their value-system would put a religious item.

We all have our dogmas, our instinct-driven rituals, and on and on. The difference between a secularist and a religionist is just the content.
 
joedad said:
bilby said:
Given that pigeons - not renowned for their intelligence - are superstitious, it should be no surprise that chimpanzees are too.

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Skinner/Pigeon/

Of course there are plenty of other possible explanations for the chimpanzee behaviour than 'religion'; so the OP seems to say more about the mindset of the individual humans involved than it does about any other species of ape.

To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a man with a mystery, everything looks like religion.

Archaeologists are infamous for using the phrase '...this was used for ritual or religious purposes', when what they really mean is '...no fucking idea what this was used for'.
Click to expand...
I'd like to know how my brain differs from a religious brain. I'd like to know how it's changed. I'd like to be able to quantify those changes physically, nuts and bolts. There is certainly something physically different and I wish we could expose the mystery.
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You need to check some of the work being done by Dr. Michael Persinger. Some of the results he is seeing when subjects wear his "god helmet" is amazing.

Here's one short youtube video on some of his work....

 
Excuse me, but I thought the monotheistic concept of 'God' is a recent invention.

Personally, I think the progression of belief in 'special tree' to 'tree spirit' to 'god of the forest' to 'god of all things' is about as intuitive as anything in religious thinking.

Religious people like to pretend that their beliefs aren't just the latest iteration in a long progression, but that doesn't mean that it isn't so.
 
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