SenorDingDong

thanks a lot guys. for tonight i will stick with the conversation between richard dawkins and brian greene but tomorrow i will be looking at the carta stuff. btw joigus, i also like your posts on the fermi paradox

2 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

And in the context of religion, we're imagining something that we can't otherwise sense, and I think that's the key. At an age when humans were looking beyond simple hunting and gathering, those who could use their minds to interpret things that couldn't be seen or felt would hold a special place in the society. 

If you're coming from a more or less religious upbringing, you may want to investigate TalkOrigins.org. They have a LOT of evolutionary material to help  cure the disease of creationism. Even if you've never been a creationist, the information is written for those new to evolution.

 

no religious upbringing actually, born in east germany and raised more or less as an atheist. im just very interested in evolution especially in that of behaviours.

1 hour ago, iNow said:

We also need to be clear whether we're discussing the evolution of religion or if we're discussing the evolution of belief in god(s). Those are different conversational paths.

Well I definitely mean the evolution of believing in god or any entity of this sort.

39 minutes ago, joigus said:

And I almost forgot and went completely off-topic. Evolutionary arguments for religion are not biological, but based on the theory of memes, by Richard Dawkins, and argued for very eloquently by Daniel Dennett. Religions are like viri, or parasites, they evolve because they do well, not because they favour their host. They clearly don't.

I'm also rather new to the topic in the sense that i really try to understand evolution for a few months now. can you point me to a book of dawkins for that matter?

Also I'm trying to read Robert Sapolsky on the matter of how the brain works which would get right into the point that you made about fear and anxiety. But that is kind of a hard read for me as i have no scientific backround whatsoever. Any chance you can recommend any "lighter" readings on this topic for someone who is just starting to try to understand these kind of things?

Hey,

I was wondering what exactly the evolutionary origin of religion/a believe in god is.

I have heard one argument that stuck with me. Individuals that believed a sound in the bushes would be a deadly snake or leopard or any other predator would have ran immediately versus individuals that didnt believe that would have been eaten a certain percentage of times. Thereby evolution would have favored individuals that easily believed.