I still don't agree that people need a God, especially how they are using it.
There are far too many random negative things that can happen for a species that has some sense of it's own consciousness and mortality to not need a need for religion as a proxy for meaning.
I'm sure there was an offshoot of early humanity that had no "instinct" for religion, but it was probably a maladaptive trait.
Life is full of random unfair suffering, animals have no concept of it so it doesn't affect them. If you don't have a mechanism to explain and/or cope with that, then you're just not going to do well in life.
I totally disagree. You don't need fairness. People want it.
(The following you's are generic and are not directed at you specifically) The world is not actually run by your parents, so when something bad happens, they are neither to blame, nor can they offer care because of it.
The world simply is not fair, and people understand that sometimes terrible things happen and you have to move on with life. Not only that, but religion promoting fairness is a modern concept. The point behind many Gods was to understand that lots of unfair forces were beyond your control and input, and your best bet was to adapt against them.
People don't need to create a personification to blame for their problems or ask for solutions. They just need to know how to move on.
To better clarify, I meant that a Zebra who loses a mate to a lion won't appear to suffer any psychic stress from wondering "why did the Lion take my mate and not somebody else" because they don't appear able to mentally create that thought. Because they can't think it than it can't threaten their existence.
Because humans can, we have had to evolve a defense mechanism to respond. A cultural mechanism to solve an issue.
This is why all religions have some common themes. They have a all powerful being of some kind, they have a story that explains creation, they have a "post death" story as well as having rules on how to live in order to pass a judgement of some kind at death.
I'm sure there were proto humans or cultures and civilisations that differed from this at some point, but they didn't last long enough for us to know about them. Which means that they probably were inherently inferior to societies/peoples with religion.
There are far too many random negative things that can happen for a species that has some sense of it's own consciousness and mortality to not need a need for religion as a proxy for meaning.
I'm sure there was an offshoot of early humanity that had no "instinct" for religion, but it was probably a maladaptive trait.
Life is full of random unfair suffering, animals have no concept of it so it doesn't affect them. If you don't have a mechanism to explain and/or cope with that, then you're just not going to do well in life.
I totally disagree. You don't need fairness. People want it.
(The following you's are generic and are not directed at you specifically) The world is not actually run by your parents, so when something bad happens, they are neither to blame, nor can they offer care because of it.
The world simply is not fair, and people understand that sometimes terrible things happen and you have to move on with life. Not only that, but religion promoting fairness is a modern concept. The point behind many Gods was to understand that lots of unfair forces were beyond your control and input, and your best bet was to adapt against them.
People don't need to create a personification to blame for their problems or ask for solutions. They just need to know how to move on.
To better clarify, I meant that a Zebra who loses a mate to a lion won't appear to suffer any psychic stress from wondering "why did the Lion take my mate and not somebody else" because they don't appear able to mentally create that thought. Because they can't think it than it can't threaten their existence.
Because humans can, we have had to evolve a defense mechanism to respond. A cultural mechanism to solve an issue.
This is why all religions have some common themes. They have a all powerful being of some kind, they have a story that explains creation, they have a "post death" story as well as having rules on how to live in order to pass a judgement of some kind at death.
I'm sure there were proto humans or cultures and civilisations that differed from this at some point, but they didn't last long enough for us to know about them. Which means that they probably were inherently inferior to societies/peoples with religion.