[ExI] Space and religion are the likeliest pathways out of decadence: Ross Douthat

[William Flynn Wallace]

keith wrote    The tendency to get a religion is so common that it must
have been
under positive selection pressure at some time in the past.

Maybe you would know:  I suspect that the amount of variability in the
small tribes that constituted our ancestors' living arrangements was rather
small.  Everyone had to follow/believe in the shaman, whether a separate
figure, or the leader himself, or get shunned.  Conformity pressures in
small groups are large.  Even today we have religions that preach that
unbelievers should be killed.

bill w


On Sat, Mar 7, 2020 at 12:16 PM Keith Henson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> > On Mar 7, 2020, at 6:33 AM, John Clark via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> snip
>
> > Even if I'm wrong about religion conferring no net positive value to
> society,
>
> The tendency to get a religion is so common that it must have been
> under positive selection pressure at some time in the past.  Not
> necessarily for religion per se.  It could be a trait selected for
> something else (like war) that makes people vulnerable to religions.
>
> But even taking religions as pure parasitic memes, the first thing any
> parasite does is protect its host from other parasites.  Or, as I have
> said for ages, it's better to be have a well aged religion than to be
> susceptible to fatal cults.
>
>
> Keith
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