Not wrong, but bland, boring, and in every respect less than EPT! ;-)

"Bernhard Fink"  wrote in message
news:avscf0$1o55$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> Toward an evolutionary psychology of religiosity
>
> CASPAR SOELING & ECKART VOLAND
>
> Neuroendocrinology Letters,2002; 23(suppl 4):98-104
>
> How can the evolution of religiosity be explained? To answer this
> question, we attempt to develop an understanding of the
> psychological domains underlying religious behaviour. We see four
> evolved domains, the sum and interaction of which constitute
> religiosity, namely: mysticism, ethics, myths and rituals. Even if
> the individual content, accents and implementations differ in each
> specific religion, they nevertheless derive from evolved Darwinian
> algorithms that are species-specific adaptations of homo sapiens.
> Mysticism. Intuitive ontologies are the basis for mystical
> experiences. Usually they serve to classify reality into animate and
> inanimate objects, animals or plants, for example. For a variety of
> psychological reasons, supernatural experiences result from a
> mixture of different ontological categories.
> Ethics. The basis for ethics lies in the social competency of human
> beings. Ethics is founded on the concept of social exchange
> ("social-contract algorithm") with its ideas about
> reciprocity, fairness, justice, cheater detection, in-group/out-
> group differentiation, etc.
> Myths. The basis for myths is the "language instinct". We
> interpret myths as the verbal expression of the cognitive content of
> those individual modules that constitute the belief system. Above
> all, myths document the experience and processing of contingency and
> thus help social bonding.
> Rituals. Rituals are based on the handicap principle. By making
> certain symbols and acts more expensive, they signal commitment for
> a reliable in-group morale.
> In conclusion, we argue that human religiosity emerges from a
> cognitive interaction between these four domains. Religiosity
> processes contingencies and enhances co-operation through social
> bonding, norm setting and cheater detection. It fulfils those
> functions for which the mental modules of its four domains have
> evolved so that we feel it appears to be justified to attribute to
> religiosity the evolutionary status of an adaptation.
>
> http://www.nel.edu/23_s4/NEL231002R10_Soeling.htm
>
---
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 1/13/03 12:22:03 PM