I think that religion is a form of tribalism, which comes easily to us as a social species. We find ways to form small communities around simple and even artificial similarities: the color of our skin, our place of birth, the color of our hair, our favorite sports team, our favored political views, and so on. Religion is a form of this, with an added twist: there is a conscious and sentient being of unimaginable power who blesses that particular community and will bestow greater blessings upon it (and horrific punishments upon competing communities).
I think tribalism will be with us for as long as there is an "us." I think religion will remain a common form of tribalism because the twist I mentioned above has many psychological implications that make it attractive to people. I hope it fades over time, but I expect that we'll still be creating and belonging to religious groups long after I've shuffled off this mortal coil.
I think tribalism will be with us for as long as there is an "us." I think religion will remain a common form of tribalism because the twist I mentioned above has many psychological implications that make it attractive to people. I hope it fades over time, but I expect that we'll still be creating and belonging to religious groups long after I've shuffled off this mortal coil.
"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
