[ExI] atheists/religion

[William Flynn Wallace]

At the root, religions are xenophobic
meme.  keith

Oh, we are born xenophobic, all right.  But the other side of that coin is
intragroup cohesion and loyalty.  On a day to day basis that might be more
important.   One climbs up the ladder:  first parents, then tribe, the
tribe leader. then spiritual leader (sometimes a paranoid schizophrenic
having delusions and hallucinations, which are still regarded in parts of
Africa as evidence of contact with the spirit world), then the god or gods
the shaman contacts.  A natural progression towards having a local, tribal
god - and Jehova was certainly the Jew's god and the god of no one else
until being adopted by Christians, most of whom were Jews at the beginning.
bill w

On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 5:11 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> > I think for anyone who follows a religion, to characterize atheists as
> > anything negative is patronizing.
> >
> > I think for anyone who is an atheist, to characterize people who follow
> > some religion as anything negative is patronizing.
> >
> > It ain't nothin' but bigotry, folks.  Either way.
>
> It still leaves room for the meta question of why humans have religions at
> all?
>
> Being religious is such a  widespread psychological trait that (in
> terms of evolution) it must have been selected at sometime in our
> past.  Since it is common in Africa, the selection must have been
> before humans left Africa, something like 60k years ago.
>
> I suspect the selection for religions was the same as the selection
> for the traits behind wars.  At the root, religions are xenophobic
> meme.
>
> The trait for religions is less common than the capture-bonding trait,
> so the selection may have been less intense.
>
> Keith
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