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For atheists, it is not a particularly welcome thought that religion evolved because it conferred essential benefits on early human societies and their successors. If religion is a lifebelt, it is hard to portray it as useless.

For believers, it may seem threatening to think that the mind has been shaped to believe in gods, since the actual existence of the divine may then seem less likely.

But the evolutionary perspective on religion does not necessarily threaten the central position of either side....article

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I don't think non believers lose any sleep over this. The earliest evolutainary thinkers said there may be natural selection benefits.

It may keep believers awake however. If religion evolved there is no RIGHT creed & if the gods evolved they are not the all powerful and all knowing gods many worship.

Evoluntionary perspective....science is science & is not threatening.

Great article...still need to finish it!

Any current theory about God and the origin of life that doesn't address the certainty of existence of life elsewhere in the Cosmos or the realities created by poly extremophiles might as well be discussing how many angels dance on the head of a pin. What? The Vatican is leaving the rest of Theology in the dust? How did that come about? Sounds like something sneaked into the room while everyone was screaming at each other.

In addition to conferring essential benefits for groups to evolve, perhaps some day soon it may become a scientific matter of fact that groups of people focusing thought (prayer, meditation) on a specific outcome (healing, peace) actually can and do effect the outcome.

Science is not threatening and religion is not either, when it is used for the greater good of all people.
When it isn't, it is.

I agree with Wot and Barb.

I hold no brief with those who believe. Only when they impose their beliefs on me.

...it may become a scientific matter of fact that groups of people focusing thought (prayer, meditation) on a specific outcome (healing, peace) actually can and do effect the outcome."..Barb

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It gives the praying person peace that they are somehow helping.
I wish life was that easy and it actually worked.

People on thousands of prayer chains/ those who visit multiple faith healers...DIE...like all the rest of us.

Maybe the gods are very busy. Would nice if it worked.

Religion probably did provide a survival advantage to early humans. For one thing, it's in group morality and mentality encouraged the formation of tribes and communities which had a better chance to survive than a single human or family. Other human traits that provided a survival advantage would be aggression, greed, selfishness and hostility to those outside the group. Just because those things provided an early advantage does not mean they are what is needed for our modern world. Our challenge, if we are to become an advanced, enlightened civilization, is to evolve past these holdovers from our ancient past as we move toward the future. If, as Len says, we are destined to meet other sentient creatures as we explore the universe, I don't think they would like us very much right now.

Dying is part of living, Wot. No way around that unless of course, you're a vampire.

Exactly Barb...

So in what ways do prayers to any gods "effect the outcome???".

This shows how desperately the human mind need to put everything in order. By sheer coincidence, Gods always seem to do all the things we can't explain. And as proof of their existence, we point to those things we can't explain. Gods used to cause the sun to rise and set, and make the earth shake. Now, we have reasons for that, and Gods now are limited to collecting funds to buy their middle-men Cadillacs. Man's greatest fear seems to be randomness. The fact that in a car wreck, one person dies, and one doesn't. Man needs a reason. God saved him. Well, what about the other guy? It was his time and God called him.
Stuff happens. When I swat flies in the summer, God does not direct the fly-swatter.

Prayers are good for people who feel impotent. It allows the problem and solution to be moved off the individuals shoulders and on to their omniscient lord.