Popular Theories of Religion

I'm not convinced that there is. There is an innate basis for wondering how things work but religion is only one possible offshoot of that. My point was that, since religion goes shooting off in all directions, many of them contradictory, it is not "real" in the sense that it is a useful explanation of reality.

 

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You're absolutely right about that—religion does a terrible job of explaining reality. Pinker proselytized on this idea at length. Except that he's wrong that the purpose of religion is to explain reality. Read this one chapter from the book, Darwin's Apple, to see an alternative explanation for the origins of religion. If we're asking for an evolutionary reason for religion, it has to be based on biology. Specific beliefs are not measurable fodder for science, but religious behaviors are.

 

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