Have We Evolved to Be Religious?

[SamG]

33. The very definition of "evolution" has nothing to do with

what a singular species does in behavioral terms over the course of 10, 20, or even the last 100 thousand years.

I think a more proper term to use in mentioning religion is more along the lines of survival advantage, something for which various religious beliefs have sometimes bestowed either advantage or disadvantage.

Religion during the time of the black plague, for instance, offered a disadvantage for millions of Europeans, as they gathered together and prayed for their own health, prayed to rid themselves of a disease they didn't have the scientific knowledge to understand nor combat against. The mere gathering together of human beings in close quarters lead to the spread of the disease among those whose immune systems, through genetics, were more vulnerable, not the eradication of it.

This leads to the distinction I mentioned above, a behavior trait, and methodology of coping with adversities facing humankind, perhaps gives the appearance of a survival advantage, but is strictly a developed system of thought, rather than something implicit within the human genome itself.

Rather than express the phenomenon of religion as an evolutionary feature, it is probably better to describe it as an intellectual development of inventive creative people, used to foster the chances of their own survival against all the many threats and adversity of the world around them, (including other groups of humans) in comparatively modern times, the last 20 thousand years or so. Sometimes it worked out well for one group or another, sometimes, not so much,(as when humans were sacrificed to please their gods). but it is not strictly a genetic feature of Homo Sapiens, it is entirely an intellectual invention of humankind.