You're absolutely right about that—religion does a terrible job of explaining reality. Pinker proselytized on this idea at length. Except that he's...
If you want to see an explanation for religion that goes beyond Alper and includes the rationale for ritual, see darwinsapple.com/0bookIntro.html.
Not sure why variation matters. Religion is like language: there are many variations, but there is an innate basis to both of them. Real variation...
Yes, I've seen this before. Alper is on the right track, but he falls short of a complete answer. "Spiritual consciousness constitutes 'nature’s...
What about all the behaviors of religion like religious rituals? All these mental apparitions you cite don't require ritual behaviors. Why are there...
I agree that transference is an important psychological process involved in both religion and the Theory of Mind, but it requires a deeper dive. Do...
This is a fabulous oversimplification. Of course humans have active imaginations to invoke and enjoy fiction and mythologies. Theory of Mind would be...
If you read the works of scientists Joseph LeDoux, V.S. Ramachandran, Antonio Damasio, Michael Gazzaniga, Kahneman and Tversky, Cosmides and Tooby,...
Innate or instinctual doesn't mean all or nothing. Like language, I believe religion has genetic underpinnings, but we all learn the specific...
Religion has consistently persisted for 99% of humanity in polytheist tribal bands. That's where we must look to understand how and why religion...
I agree that most folks who consider these questions believe practicing religion is a choice. At least that's my experience hanging out with other...
I struggle with why early people developed religion consisting of completely non-empirical entities (gods) and irrational beliefs if they are/were...
The most popular theories for why humans have religion are: 1. To answer the existential mysteries--Why do we die? What is our purpose in life?...
Very cool. It seems that people expect animals to like human music and rhythm as if animals should be like people. It's anthropomorphic and...
Thanks for pointing out the Finnish study for a genetic correlation to musical ability. That's an excellent start. The God gene is very preliminary...
Thank you for the excellent clarification. My original question was why would humans need religion to promote eusociality when there are millions of...
Yeah, I have a problem with group selection, too, which is that it's used top-down rather than bottom-up. It seems to me that's it's invoked to solve...
Now this is an awesome opportunity to dig into the science. I wasn't aware of Patel, but I took a look. Not sure about your interpretation of his...
Boy, Sylvan really bothers you. I only cited it because he says music continues to satisfy the religious-ritual need humans have as they did over...
Really? Elephants, wildebeest, musk oxen, bison, and many other species have socially cohesive groups that are far larger than any human tribe. The...
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