<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Jun 3, 2010, at 10:43 PM, Keith Henson wrote:</div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div> 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.<br></div></blockquote><br></div><div>Maybe, but there might be a simpler explanation. In general it would be a Evolutionary advantage for children to listen to and believe what adults, particularly parents, have to say; don't eat those berries they will kill you, don't swim in that river there are crocodiles, etc. Most people may not be born with innate religious feelings but some are, and they teach their children that belief, and when they grow up they in turn teach their children that belief too. They do it because most people have this usually advantageous tendency to believe into adulthood whatever they were taught as children. And so screwy religious ideas that start small propagate.</div><div><br></div><div> John K Clark </div><br></body></html>