(January 6, 2021 at 5:39 pm)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:(January 6, 2021 at 5:06 pm)Apollo Wrote: We humans as social animals have certain group characteristics and behaviors which lead to forming various cultures and rituals. This comes first. Religion comes later.
Within a naturalistic perspective, you don't think it makes more sense for the two to co-evolve? That ritualistic behavior evolved within a ritualistic system, which evolved because of ritualistic behavior? If rituals emerged first and religion hijacked it, what biological or psychological role do rituals play in our evolution that precedes religion?
Rituals have many uses. It's excellent way to propagate good behavior and shun the bad one. It's also a great way to pass on knowledge, antiquates, acceptable behavior in a group setting to younger generation without having to go through lengthy, resource (time, energy) consuming routines or verbal lessons. Rituals are also a great way to signal intent or trust among others.
Imagine a scenario of a father taking his son to a hunting party for the first time in Savannah. A new member in the hunting party poses a risk as he may not know how to properly hunt or swarm the animal for hunting and can cause loss or even injury to others –– The tribe may have a ritual of initiation where hunting party members are introduced to the young boy, as well as routines to signal to the boy how to behave and respect those who are accepting him as trustworthy participant even though this is his first time. To encourage the boy to work diligently and fetch more food and not be a free loader, they may even come up with a ritual to celebrate his first kill as reward. To promote good behavior, they may introduce tradition that the first kill should be presented to the elder of the tribe in a ceremony to signal to the boy hierarchal respect expected of him, as well as, signaling to the elders of the tribe that the boy is one of them and not a rebel.
There could be gazillions other scenarios where rituals are useful to build a coherent, conforming society among various members of the group. These rituals are born out of necessity of survival. They are solutions to common social survival problems living in a group and are passed on generation by generation. As time passed on, humans found new effective ways to do this and religion was just one such way.
