[ExI] When small societies reach c.1 million - religion appears

[Aleksei Riikonen]

On Thu, Mar 21, 2019 at 2:13 PM BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> To me that seems to say that when humans feel things are getting out
> of control, they need to feel that 'somebody or something' is still
> controlling things.

No, it's simply that religion is the only way to prevent very many
normal humans from turning into selfish bastards in societies that are
big enough that being a selfish bastard is a winning strategy.

(Some, of course, realize that the religion the leaders are pushing is
bullshit designed to keep people under control, and then turn into
selfish bastards anyway. Which may create evolutionary pressure to
keep humans stupid enough that their society doesn't become
dysfunctional and weak because of too many selfish bastards.)

-- 
Aleksei Riikonen - http://www.iki.fi/aleksei