Is religion part of mankind's evolution?

Answer:

To understand why evolution would favour the natural preference for easily believing things without any proof, you need only look as the principle of natural selection; those with traits which help them survive do so and pass those traits down to newer generations.

The classic example: Is it not better for a primitive primate to believe that a stick is actually a snake and stay away from it, than to believe the reverse and risk getting bitten? In the earliest of times, believing things without evidence probably played a critical role to the survival of our distant ancestors.

Answer:

Part of our evolution into humans meant that we were given the gift of imagination. When a fellow human would die for instance, we could imagine that he was going somewhere else. This was not necessarily a trait that helped our survival, but rather a side-affect of our superior intelligence. As we developed more, we began to imagine why the wind blows, and why there are storms, and why the sun rises and falls. In that way, religion was definitely part of our evolution.

ANSWER

Religion is a part of human evolution and it is a part of human culture. Sociologists have defined culture as meanings and values that are shared by a group of people. Culture tells it´s members, among other things, how to see the world. It influences every aspect of life, from appropriate behavior, to what is important in life, to what part of the incoming information is important enough to notice. It´s purpose is to reduce our uncertainty. Religion is a big part of culture, every culture in the history of mankind has had some sort of religion, and religion has changed as humans became more civilized.

By the way, what the previous answer said about evolution is incorrect. Evolution does not say that as we age we get bigger, stronger, or better. Evolution says that the animals that could not survive died and did not have offspring, and no longer inhabit our world.

Answer

No, religions are factions created by men to govern other men. It's easier to get the masses to follow rules when you say they are ordained by a higher power. God wants a personal relationship with all of us, and the church was ment for gathering in worship. It's not for setting rules or practicing any kind of authority all though many of them do. But I'll admit that religion was probably the biggest factor in the shaping of human civilization, but not evolution. I have a byass feeling towards religion, and despite the fact that they all, for the most part, stand for rightousness and try to build images of such and occasionally do some good; it's a cold hard fact that there has been more killing in the name of religion than any nation, dynasty, miltitary, and/or empire that has ever existed. Faith and spiritulality are parts of mankind's evolution, not religion.

Answer

Evolution is a well-supported scientific theory or, more accurately, theories that describe how living things evolved over millions of years through common "descent with modification" to use Darwin's terms. This theory consists of the application of processes involving chance and necessity (such as reproduction, mutation and selection from adaption). As more species have died off than survived, evolution could be seen as a process of species reduction more than selection.

Today many evolutionary scientists are researching the concept that human beings have developed a spiritual nature and what evolutionary advantages it gives for survival. Religions are the physical expression of this spiritual nature and can take many forms that, at times, seem contradictory in their practices, beliefs and sacred texts.

First answer by ID1081172521. Last edit by Randomtask3000. Contributor trust: 3 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 48 [recommend question]