"porterboy"  wrote
>
> Hi, I'm no biologist, so this may be a stupid question.
> Evolutionary theory put an end to the Adam and Eve version of
> the origin of the human species.
>
The theory that humans were created out of clay about 6000 years ago is
definitely disproved. Monogenesis - the theory that all humans are descended
from a single couple without interbreeding with outsiders, is nearly but not
absolutely disproved.
>
> But I'm curious as to how belief in God would serve humanity
> from an evolutionary point of view.
>
If supernatural forces are real then there might be an advantage in being
able to communicate with them. (In the same way, echoes are real, and humans
have a very primitive ability to echolocate which we are hardly aware of.)
>
> Given that 90% of the planet believe in God, it seems that we
> must have found it beneficial over the millenia... (ergo, those who
> didn't believe in God didnt live long enough to reproduce...
> probably died of cynicism :-)
>
The sociologist Emile Durkheim, writing in 1912, didn't find a single
example of a secular society. If you read _Phantoms in the Brain_, by
Ramachandran, you will find a description of an area of the brian which
produces excessive religious behaviour when it is over-stimulated by
epilepsy. Putting two and two together, it seems obvious that religion isn't
just a rogue "meme", as Richard Dawkins, the famous Darwinist and atheist,
would have it, but is something that has evolved.

Explaining just why anything has evolved is difficult, because it we can't
travel back in time, and it is seldom easy to test hypotheses. Obviously if
the existence of supernatural beings could be demonstrated independently
then the "supernatural forces are real" hypothesis would become very
attractive. There is also some evidence that in modern conditions a religion
is a force for social advancement. Jews are famous for gravitating to
prestigous professions, for example. It is not so clear that this would
apply to hunter gatherers.
There could be more subtle advantages. Certainly Durkheim found that in
primitive religions there was no clear distinction between religious
symbolism and the identifying totem, or emblem, of the tribe. Its easy to
see that anyone who didn't accept the ideology of the tribe would be at a
disadvantage, though exactly how religion might have evolved is still quite
unclear.

If you are asking "does God exist?" then evolutionary biologists aren't
really in a better position to answer this than anyone else. We know that
biblical literalism is wrong, but then St Augustine said as much in the 5th
century when some Christians rejected Greek philosophy on scriptural
grounds, so we are not exactly saying anything new. Human suffering is
implict in the process of natural selection, but the argument from evil
isn't a new objection to theism either. We don't understand free will,
consciousness, or language, the three things that define our identity as
humans. You will find both atheist and religious biologists.
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 6/12/04 10:40:39 PM