The five "R"s that probably inspired the invention of god and religion:

[smax]

You see, this is exactly what I was talking about. Why not include this in the OP when you made the claim?

I already stated my intent to create a progressive discussion.

I feel that only helps to substantiate my position here.

How so?

(I'm not challenging you. I genuinely would like to know.)

That piece that you quoted speculates about the inherent benefits of religion, such as emotional rewards (love) and the desire for purpose (souls). His take is more geared toward the evolution of the human mind, but many of the motivating factors are identical. In fact, he practically summed it up for me:

Put these together and you get an appeal to a mysterious world of souls to bring about our fondest wishes.

Again, I have to point out that you made claims, and nowhere did you indicate it was intended to spark discussion.

Kind of seemed obvious to me, being that I was creating a thread on a discussion forum, but I'll keep your objection in mind in the future.

And why didn't you provide the supporting evidence with the claim?

In some cases, that's my approach. In other cases, my goal is to solicit the opinions of others without unnecessarily influencing them.

Excuse the slang, but this isn't my first rodeo.

Perhaps in the future you should be more explicit about that instead of simply making claims with no elaboration.

I'm not sure when it happened, but I suspect I rubbed you, and maybe some other staff members, the wrong way somewhere along the line. I loosely base that on the fact that I've read numerous thread topics that were ridiculously pointless and baseless, and yet not accompanied by the same objections some of mind have met with.

Anyway, just a theory.