It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by ShadowedRedemption
I see what you mean DarkSide.
Most of those ancient practices have either died out or have been absorbed by another ideal sadly. It would be interesting to see if any pure forms of the animism still exist.
Religion does give meaning to some people's lives. But does that hinder or help them? Can a person be strong and complete without the aid of a religion? I think so. Forgive me by being blunt, but perhaps those fragile people out there eventually won't exist anymore. Maybe it is during out generations that the fragile mind will die out as humans evolve to an indepth understanding of identity.
Originally posted by DarkSide
I don't think there's selective pressure on people whether they believe in supernatural beings or not. It's not something that is passed on like blue or green eyes, there are young earther parents with atheist children, and vice versa. Reality is hard to take for anyone, unless your totally confortable with the fact that life means nothing and that when you die you'll return to nonexistance like if you never existed at all. I remember reading "The selfish gene" by Dawkins, it litterally pulled the carpet from under my feet, altough I was already an atheist before I read it.
[edit on 14-8-2007 by DarkSide]
Originally posted by DarkSide
There is selective pressure on cultural ideas, and religion for example (see memes)
But how can that have an impact on natural selection?
Humans are particular in that way, since evolution is a response to envirronmental change through natural selection, yet humans have been and are shaping our own envirronment. So we're evolving according to an envirronment we are creating and maintaining. Also people that would already be dead for long are able to live and even have children nowadays (disabled people, diseases, malformations etc). I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's a reality that if you were living 30 000 years ago and you lost the usage of your arms or had an open wound you would more and likely die.
Originally posted by ShadowedRedemption
30,000 years ago a person would simply leave a fellow wounded person to die
Originally posted by ShadowedRedemption
I know that morals did not appear with religion. Its just that when you live in a world where you could potentially die of a cold, and its constantly eat or be eaten, it would be a little hard to try and care for someone wounded when you can barely fend for yourself.
Originally posted by ShadowedRedemption
But something had to provide the mortar to emotionally tie everyone together. Perhaps religion developed then as a concept for the people to band together, so that they could ban together in order to evolve further.