Religion is just a form of tribalism. I consider it a particularly dangerous form because of the part involving an invisible moral arbiter who offers great reward/punishment. But it's just one of many ways that we form inclusive/exclusive groups and wind up judging people based on particular choices or traits. I am hopeful that religion is just a phase in the way we form such groups, in that we may someday ratchet down the violence often associated with tribalism (example- the savage beatings and even killings that have been happening over sports allegiances, or racial differences, or national/ethnic differences, etc).
Which is to say that if religion didn't exist, we'd have invented it. And, well... we did.
Which is to say that if religion didn't exist, we'd have invented it. And, well... we did.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
