[ExI] Why religion at all?

[Keith Henson]

The capacity to be sucked into a religion is a widespread human
behavioral trait.

Evolutionary theory states that behavior traits as well as physical
traits are subject to evolutionary selection.

Some of these (like capture-bonding) have an obvious evolutionary
selection path.  Religion is a little more complex to account for.  I
make the case in an article I have quoted here before that the human
capacity for religions is a side effect of millions of conflict
events.

In this context I make a case that the ability to hold a religion
comes from the ability to be infected with a xenophobic meme where the
function of the infection is to sync a tribe's warriors up for a do or
die attempt to kill neighbors in times of ecological stress.

If you look around, it's not hard to see the connection even today.

Keith