Survival of the fittest religion

[mvdgaag]

Some thoughts on religion I'd like to share: Most aspects of the experience of a religion will have something to do with one of the following:

- the creaton of fear
- taking away of fear
- promises of better life/afterlife
- explanations for the (un)known
- belonging with a group

I think it is no coincidence that these are the exact ingredients that will attract and/or keep believers. Religions that fail in these aspects will not be around for a long time. For example I'm safer believing in the god that punishes me for not believing if the god of the alternative religion does not punish me. I also prefer the religion with the nicest heaven. And because I don't like to be uncertain about things I most probably will never know I'll accept the explanations my religion gives me.

In short: religions, like many other things rely on the principle of survival of the fittest.

Anyone on this subject?

[thylacine]

[ QUOTE ]
Some thoughts on religion I'd like to share: Most aspects of the experience of a religion will have something to do with one of the following:

- the creaton of fear
- taking away of fear
- promises of better life/afterlife
- explanations for the (un)known
- belonging with a group

I think it is no coincidence that these are the exact ingredients that will attract and/or keep believers. Religions that fail in these aspects will not be around for a long time. For example I'm safer believing in the god that punishes me for not believing if the god of the alternative religion does not punish me. I also prefer the religion with the nicest heaven. And because I don't like to be uncertain about things I most probably will never know I'll accept the explanations my religion gives me.

In short: religions, like many other things rely on the principle of survival of the fittest.

Anyone on this subject?

[/ QUOTE ]

Religion is culture-cancer.

[hmkpoker]

You may want to check out Richard Dawkins' Viruses of the Mind. (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1993-summervirusesofmind.shtml)

[HeavilyArmed]

Muslims are breeding like crazy. Atheists, not so much. Christians, somewhat above replacement, I think.

[arahant]

With the possible exception of the first, what religions lack any of these elements? I agree this is a partial explanation for religion, but it's also virtually the definition of religion, so I don't see that it does much to distinguish between different religions.

[John21]

[ QUOTE ]
I think it is no coincidence that these are the exact ingredients that will attract and/or keep believers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if the choice between religions is the key factor. Until the 20th Century, there wasn't too much drift outside of the religion you were born into. However, there probably is some connection with how well a particular religion benefits a society or culture.

So I think societies/cultures that had an ineffective religion or no religion at all probably just perished. For example in the 1980's something like 85% of the world’s population believed in some type of god and of the remaining 15% who were atheists and agnostics, 14% resided in communist countries. So it was the communist culture that vanished, not the particular religion or in this example, lack of one.

[Skidoo]

[ QUOTE ]
Some thoughts on religion I'd like to share: Most aspects of the experience of a religion will have something to do with one of the following:

- the creaton of fear
- taking away of fear
- promises of better life/afterlife
- explanations for the (un)known
- belonging with a group

I think it is no coincidence that these are the exact ingredients that will attract and/or keep believers.

[/ QUOTE ]

No item in your list is peculiar to religion as opposed to society in general.

[Borodog]

[ QUOTE ]
You may want to check out Richard Dawkins' Viruses of the Mind. (http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1993-summervirusesofmind.shtml)

[/ QUOTE ]

Here's the Viruses of the Mind thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4307603&page=0&fpart=all &vc=1).