The title of the thread is a loaded question. Or not the right way to put it.
Evolution explains how bad conclusions can lead to group success. It is as simple as considering the 3,000 years of the Ancient Egyptians being successful centering their lives around very false claims of their polytheism that was never true.
Dawkins explains god claims as a result of our evolutionary gap filling. As he put it in "The God Delusion" it is the moth mistaking the light bulb for the natural moon light. It is why a dog will bark a reflection of itself in the mirror. In the case of humans we simply project our own qualities in that of fear, insecurities, desires and narcissism on non human events and falsely assume that nature around us has a human like cognition pulling the strings.
The "benefits" are a placebo at best and may bring real group survival, but there is no need in reality to insert the god of the gaps in as an answer. Our species was around long before any written religion, and biological life has existed long before humans came into the picture. It may bring individuals comfort but it is a illusion in the grand scope of the age of the universe. But religion far too often, for all the good people claims it does, slows progress and is a horrible way of conducting diplomacy. It isn't that you can force it out of existence, no, but in this day an age when we have knowledge of scientific reality, it gets way too much of a priority and causes even conflicts under the same umbrella labels.
Evolution explains how bad conclusions can lead to group success. It is as simple as considering the 3,000 years of the Ancient Egyptians being successful centering their lives around very false claims of their polytheism that was never true.
Dawkins explains god claims as a result of our evolutionary gap filling. As he put it in "The God Delusion" it is the moth mistaking the light bulb for the natural moon light. It is why a dog will bark a reflection of itself in the mirror. In the case of humans we simply project our own qualities in that of fear, insecurities, desires and narcissism on non human events and falsely assume that nature around us has a human like cognition pulling the strings.
The "benefits" are a placebo at best and may bring real group survival, but there is no need in reality to insert the god of the gaps in as an answer. Our species was around long before any written religion, and biological life has existed long before humans came into the picture. It may bring individuals comfort but it is a illusion in the grand scope of the age of the universe. But religion far too often, for all the good people claims it does, slows progress and is a horrible way of conducting diplomacy. It isn't that you can force it out of existence, no, but in this day an age when we have knowledge of scientific reality, it gets way too much of a priority and causes even conflicts under the same umbrella labels.
