Why did evolution lead to religion?

I don't think spirituality or religion have to be detrimental to our progress. I don't know why we seem to be spiritually wired, but I'd have to say that the way religions or beliefs in god(s) manifest themselves tend to go along with the historical, cultural, and environmental/subsistence backdrop of a particular place and time.

I would disagree that religion was invented as an excuse to dominate another tribe for resources. I think religions that justified or called for dominance were more a reflection of the necessity of such actions. But early bands and most hunter gatherers lived communally and tended to NOT want to fight over resources if it could be avoided since it would be a bigger waste of resources to fight than to just get along. The beliefs of those folks tend to reflect that as well.

In his book "The God Delusion," Dawkins draws on some psychological research to hypothesize that "religion" is a mis-firing of something that is an evolutionary advantage for humans -- an instinct to unquestioningly obey and believe our kinsmen around us when we're very young.

Since humans are born so helpless (an evolutionary adaptation to our large brains, in order to have large brains but still come out of the birth canal, we have to be born not fully developed and helpless, and continue developing outside the womb), an instinct that compels us to listen and obey when an elder kinsmen says "Don't touch the fire!" or "Stay away from the cliff!" helps insure our survival to reproductive age. However, that same instinct can "misfire" to compel us to listen to the mythical stories our elders made up, and unquestioningly believe them when they say, "Baal will punish you if you don't obey him!" or "God watches you from the clouds!" It's a use of a beneficial evolutionary instinct that isn't why that instinct evolved in the first place, but our brains are made to adapt things to other uses.

Though we might never know exactly how evolution shaped some humans to invent and maintain religion, it seems plausible to me :)

Peace.

The notion of religion being detrimental, in my opinion, depends on one's stand on religion.

Religion was created in order to provide the people of an answer of origin, how the world was formed. It also provided a bond for the spiritual religions, such as Christianity, to bond with their Gods. Evolution was a theory that was not thought of and/or spread until later in the life of humanity however, so the earlier civilizations such as the Mesopotamian or Ancient Greece would have used religion as an answer. The concept of god creates a sort of comfort for the ones going through pain, in addition, and gives hope. Evolution does not explain everything about this earth, not about the very initial origin of the universe, anyway.

That was merely the primitive stage which humans are now leaving at an ever faster rate!!

Science has shown atheists have a higher intelligence than people with a strong religious faith. The difference is 5.8 points according to findings in developmental psychology!!!

More members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

Only 7 percent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God. Whilst only 3.3 percent believed in God in the UK’s Royal Society.

Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQ’s tend not to believe in God."

2. Neuroscientists have conducted the most comprehensive brain mapping to date of the cognitive abilities measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the most widely used intelligence test in the world.

The results show that the various factors that comprise a high or low IQ score

depend on particular regions of the brain.

The WAIS test is composed of four indices of intelligence, each consisting of several subtests, which together produce a full-scale IQ score. The four indices are the verbal comprehension index, which represents the ability to understand and to produce speech and use language; the perceptual organization index, which involves visual and spatial processing, such as the ability to perceive complex figures; the working memory index, which represents the ability to hold information temporarily in mind (similar to short-term memory); and the processing speed index.

With the exception of processing speed, which appears scattered throughout the brain, the lesion mapping showed that the other three cognitive indices really do depend on specific brain regions.

For example, lesions in the left frontal cortex were associated with lower scores on the verbal comprehension index; lesions in the left frontal and parietal cortex (located behind the frontal lobe) were associated with lower scores on the working memory index; and lesions in the right parietal cortex were associated with lower scores on the perceptual organization index.

The study also revealed a large amount of overlap in the brain regions responsible for verbal comprehension and working memory, which suggests that these two now-separate measures of cognitive ability may actually represent the same type of intelligence, at least as assessed using the WAIS.

It matters not if they are atheist because of this new type of intelligence or get it because they are atheist – it is a totally different and far more efficient process!!

3. Intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons, or wiring that sends signals throughout the brain. The faster the signaling, the faster the brain processes information. And since the integrity of the brain's wiring is influenced by genes, the genes we inherit play a far greater role in intelligence than was previously thought.

Genes appear to influence intelligence by determining how well nerve axons are encased in myelin — the fatty sheath of "insulation" that coats our axons and allows for fast signaling bursts in our brains. The thicker the myelin, the faster the nerve impulses.

These include the parietal lobes, which are responsible for spatial reasoning, visual processing and logic, and the corpus callosum, which pulls together information from both sides of the body.

Evolution in action with Christians getting left behind like the monkeys and apes before them!!!

But the irony is that with inheritance playing a role christian parents are passing on that better intellignce and thus giving their children the ability to see past christian conditioning and join everyone else in the real world!!

There are at least two popular notions, both with some evidence to support them. It may be that both are important:

(i) among our ancestors, religion was important for social cohesion (maintaining identification with the ingroup at the expense of outsiders) - what today we'd basically call racism

(ii) religion is a side-effect of important evolutionary developments, and even if it were disadvantageous, may be retained because the things it's a side effect of are so important.

what was mildly advantageous (at least when taken in aggregate with things it's a side effect of in case (ii) ) in the past may be disadvantageous in the present or the future.

Note also that "progress as a species" is irrelevant to evolution. It cares not a whit for species nor for progress. Differential survival of genes is the game.

SInce religions have increasingly tended to add the message "have lotsa babies" to their spiritual message, what is long-term very bad for society still may be advantageous in the short-term production of lots more copies of genes, even if it leads to their rapid extinction in a few dozen generations (evolution can't see into the future, but to a modest extent, we certainly can).

Just because something is detrimental, it doesn't mean it can't continue and grow. Religion feeds off of people's instincts and insecurities, it actively recruits new followers and indoctrinates youth. It has been doing this for thousands of years, it has evolved in it's own way, adapting to the cultural norms of the times. Think of it like a symbiotic parasite that is transmitted to your offspring.

"we evolved from a lesser intelligent being and our thoughts are constantly evolving"

There you go. What's the problem? It's easy to understand why we invented gods and religions when we knew next to nothing about the natural world. Now that we are learning more and more, religion is becoming less and less important. At some point, it will be gone.

When we were evolving we were at the mercy of nature. Our first gods were natural gods. The belief in one god is fairly recent, I mean compared to the millions of years of evolution. When you have no control over something faith makes you feel better.

I remember when I was taking a printmaking class there was so many things that could go wrong along the way, faith kept me from becoming to frustrated. By the end of the course I wanted to make a printmaking deity you could pray to so you wouldn't feel so helpless as you put your print trough the etching press.

Well in early times it wasn't detrimental, it was a way to band together tribes via a common belief, an excuse to eliminate other tribes that were taking up resources ("They're worshiping the wrong god") and a way to prevent quite so many power struggles that would weaken tribes ("He's chosen by god, lets follow him")

Edit:

A: You assume I wish to eliminate theists

B: How is homosexuality harmful, or for that matter how does it even effect, anyone but the people who are homosexuals?

C: You assume I suggest theists are un-evolved. I do not, that's just stupid, they're still humans

Edit, again: Intellect and beliefs are not purely genetic though, what your family/friends/people around you believe and know influences this heavily, therefore its not so much a matter of being an "inferior species" as it is "having different upbringing"

Maybe it wasn't always detrimental to our survival. Some experts theorize that religion aided early man's survival by bringing communities with similar beliefs together. A large group of people sharing the basic duties needed for survival (hunting, gathering, building shelters, protecting one another from invading tribes, etc...) is more likely to survive and continue growing than a smaller group.