Evolution didn't make us human, culture did:How religion made us a successful species

[RMNIXON]

Religion as a force for unifying different groups of people? History says, "You've got to be kidding".

There are historical downsides to religion, that does not erase a very civilizing influence in many ways great and small.

[RMNIXON]

History knows no greater unifying force. Religion was and still is the foundation of all the great civilizations.

The historical illiteracy of our members just amazes me.

We need to ask ourselves why religion seems to happen everywhere in some form or another. Even with very isolated groups of people.

If it were so damn terrible then why does that cultural phenomenon happen so consistently over long periods of time?

[Standing Wolf]

We need to ask ourselves why religion seems to happen everywhere in some form or another. Even with very isolated groups of people.

If it were so damn terrible then why does that cultural phenomenon happen so consistently over long periods of time?

Since all those cultures are made up of human beings, and humans do have innate instincts and tendencies due to their common physiology, it shouldn't come as a shock that they establish a number of the same practices and institutions - a superstitious belief in an unseen world of spirits and other forces being only one of them. Some others would be territoriality, suspicion of outsiders, familial bonding, the creation of a social hierarchy and - in more than a few - the enslavement of others.