If evolution is natural...?

Question

and by the idea that evolution is true, than at one point no one believed in any religion. Then religion came into play, and since it came over time, means it evolved into this world. so is being non-religious actually primitive in the evolutionary perspective?

Answer 1

When one uses the word "religion", organised, spirtual-political practice comes to mind.

Early man's belief in a higher power actually came about from a lack of knowledge about, and fear of the world around him/her, while at the same time growing increasingly intellgent.  Did you ever hear the saying, "the more I know the less I undersand"? Man's IQ snowballed as did his inquiring mind.

As man's intelligence increased, it became part of his nature to ask questions . A "natural" development was the group-religious leader. These practices became more and more important as they provided  explanations for the individual and  more  importantly, it produced group cohesion and cooperation.

    The importance of status among humans is evident even in the simpler primates and probably from this, man has grown into a very competitive and selfish species. I wasn't there, but in prehistoric times, I'll wager that pre-human groups fought amonst themselves and as they fractured into more and more separate groups, they competed for the area's resources. And, as we clearly are aware of now, people have always killed other groups of people because of their  cultural/ religious diferences.  Eventually the vocation of religious leader became a position of extreme power, as history will atest.

Evolution is based upon the theory of "natural selection". Living things, from a speck of bacteria to the human brain, and perhaps even the need for spiritual beliefs, have come about from uncontrollable forces of nature.

Religious practices, on the other hand, are only  man's attempt to fill an emptiness created by his intelligence. We can obviously create many more questions than we can answer, we can contemplate the universe, and it simplifies our lives to be able to simplify our world and our existence.

Today, religion still divides the world. In the U.S. non-Christian beliefs are considered erroneous and primative, while, in the Middle East, we are called infidels. We want them to be like us and they want us to be like them. Any wonder?

Now here's a question for you:

Are our religious beliefs and practices simply a matter of where our souls are delivered at conception or birth?

Answer 2

yes, you are right. But our belief has surpassed worshipping trees and spirits and now we have surpassed the old testaments. We are selective of the new testaments and will continue to be more tolerant of g*y and Muslims (same thing). That's why Islam was great 500 years ago but is out dated now. No one sane worships Christianity and Muslims. They worship a evolved nonviolent, tolerant, loving zen buddist sprit evolving to a higher state religion form of Christianity or Muslim.

Answer 3

No, dude, you are talking about the evolution of ideas.  The theory of evolution is to do with biology.

Answer 4

In terms of ideas; we didn't really figure out evolution (in the west at least) until philosophers in the Greek world started science.  The theory of evolution, was developed by Darwin more than a millennia later.  Some of these time-lapse is due to the spread of radical religions (Christianity in this case) & suppression of science; joined with the dark ages and medieval period following the fall of the Roman Empire.

Religion had been around for most of human existence.  The rule of thumb was if you couldn't explain it- it was the Gods.

So if anything, religion is the primitive nature of man, failing to understand the world; seeking answers but too ignorant to look for them.  

Some day, we'll realize how silly it is that we believe in this thing which lives in the sky, watches everything we do- every minute of every day; a person who has a special list of things we are not allowed to do; and if we do anything on that list, said person will send us to live forever and ever in a very nasty place.  But they love us.

Answer 5

Are you talking about the general term evolution, or the scientific theory? They're different in this context.

Answer 6

There are some who believe that the idea/theory of evolution is just another religion.  If we did evolve then why didn't the rest of the monkeys evolve with us??

Answer 7

As quite a few people pointed out, you're confusing PHYSICAL evolution with CULTURAL (i.e. the realm wherein beliefs reside). The two have almost nothing to do with one another, even among humans, whose culture HAS influenced our physical adaptation to the world.

However, our it has been our inventions, to devise new ways to survive and adapt to marginal climates, that affects our physical evolution, NOT our religious or intellectual beliefs.

Though, I suppose you COULD make a case that someone's absolute belief that science is "beneficial" no matter what, could lead to something, such as nuclear war, which would either STOP our evolution completely, or radically alter it due to mutation and other factors.

Answer 8

Actually the earliest known evidence of human religion by Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis was around 100,000 years ago.

Religion has been around since man achieved conscientiousness. Most last no more than hundreds of years until they fall away, some last for thousands of years, and then fall away.

There have been hundreds of thousands of religions since man started talking and walking around on 2 legs. When man was able to reason and question, he realized that he was mortal and that was scary.

Early man didn't understand why the sky lit up at night and water came down from the sky. He didn't understand why lava flowed, or why the earth shook, why innocent babies died.... God was created out of fear of the unknown but mostly out of mans inability to accept his own mortality. It was also good at keeping people in line. Don't do that - Or the mighty  "insert your god here" will make you pay!

Answer 9

Evolution is a lie and they now teach a 2nd falsehood... with some type of EVO DNA scam. Whats amazing is that people think scientific facts are given by Ken Miller. They get on here and say things like he has "Tons of Proof" or whatever. No its just double talk and Illicit conclusions based on lies and want evolutionists want to believe. If you read up on evolution youll see what they really say.  Like the fact there are no transitional fossils. And claiming that all are transitional is a lie. Just empty claims with no proof period. Please people if ther were any missing links found it would be on TV daily!

There are not "tons" of fossils of any such type period. Theres not even one.

Answer 10

<<so is being non-religious actually primitive in the evolutionary perspective?>>

actually, evolution leads to many different roads.

most of them are failures.

most fail right away.

some take longer.

Answer 11

There is no " primitive ", or not " primitive " in a evolutionary perspective I surmise you know little of evolutionary theory. Go here. Then your questions will not be so ill posed.

http://www.talkorigins.org

Answer 12

This is more of a question that requires discussion. Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution; that all humans, animals, and plants appeared and have evolved over time. Creationism (I may be mistaken) is the theory that a higher power (notably the Christian God) created all things. I personally believe in the theory of evolution/natural selection. Not being very religious, I can say it is not quite relevant, unless you do believe in Creationism.

Answer 13

That's an interesting way to look at it. Although just because something evolves culturally doesn't mean it's superior. For example, look at the huge trend to put rims on automobiles. If everyone thinks rims are cool but you don't, are you primitive? I'd say NO. Cultural evolution is not the same as genetic evolution because genetic evolution tends to promote better survival abilities whereas cultural evolution is just kind of random shifts in mass opinions that don't have any real effect on survival, per se.

The way I look at it, religious people are primitive because they believe in silly superstition and magic, even though most things that religions initially attempted to explain have since been answered by science. For example, people thought that lightning was made by angry gods. Now we know lightning is made by static electricity forming as a result of friction in the clouds and we can predict it and create it ourselves and stuff.

Answer 14

I think its value to humans was that it allowed larger groups to form coalitions in warfare.  The larger the group you have supporting you, the larger the army you can muster to conquer new territories.  

That use is no longer particularly valid in todays world or so it would seem.  Since its only use from an evolutionary perspective is no longer valid, clinging to antiquated ideas might be considered primitive.  I'm just using your logic but I don't really think religion is necessarily antiquated.  It would certainly be antiquated if it denies evolutionary theory.

Answer 15

I like to believe that we've grown past our primal and "natural" instincts.