The evolution of religion

Originally posted by snowinscotland
For example the suppression of the Cathars? I always thought this was a product of some rather barbaric middle ages power struggle, but was it the wiping out of a rival to the church?

Similar idea, though this would have occurred in ancient times.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
From an evolutionary perspective, China is far ahead of anything in the West. Genes care only for replication, and the Chinese have been far more proficient in this. Furthermore any technical advantage the Europeans enjoy cannot be demonstrated without their active use of gunpowder (invented in China).

Nukes

Originally posted by kirksey957
But there is some talk that they are going to be having a crisis in the near future related to the male/female ratio, that there are too many males. They estimate this will create all kinds of social problems with many men being left out of the "market" so to speak.

Such crises are generally solved by invading someone else. You get land and resources and you kill off your excess males.

Originally posted by snowinscotland
At some point in the Middle/Far East long ago, the gods worshipped were many, and varied. Somehow between then and now it has become reasonably 'standard' to accept that there is only one God. What was the process that brought mankind along this path?

As far as I know there are three major religions that stick to monotheism, all of them stem from the same original religion (Judaism). However just because the three constitute a fairly large part of the world population it is hardly enough to claim that the concept is 'reasonably standard' any more than the concept (also shared by the same religions) that Moses was a prophet of God is 'reasonably standard'.
There are various reasons as to why the concept might be more appealing to some people than to others but the reason for its dominance has far more to do with the dominance of the respective religions (for various reasons) than to do with the concept of monotheism.

Originally posted by twhitehead
As far as I know there are three major religions that stick to monotheism, all of them stem from the same original religion (Judaism). However just because the three constitute a fairly large part of the world population it is hardly enough to claim that the concept is 'reasonably standard' any more than the concept (also shared by the same religions) tha ...[text shortened]... of the respective religions (for various reasons) than to do with the concept of monotheism.

Go on - the dominance of Judism, Christianity and Muslim is due to .... what?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
[b]Also, the cultural problem of valuing male babies over females is certainly not limited to any one region or religion.

Indeed, remember in Christianity a woman is owned by her husband.[/b]

surely that is a key to evolutionary success - being able to reproduce..... therefore the individuals who are able to reproduce have an advantage. Surely these include personal and broader beliefs - look at the church's refusal to countanance birth control, does that not directly lead to successful reproduction?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
The Japanese and Chinese were, for hundreds of years, light years ahead of the Europeans in terms of technological development. They had gunpowder, and understood the importance of boiling water to kill diseases when the Christian church was still drilling holes in peoples heads to let the bad spirits out.

Polynesians (and the Chinese that they deve ...[text shortened]... ast) hundreds of years before Europeans did.

Perhaps a lesson in humility is required by you.

but where did that lead them? They may have been ahead for a long period but that lead was let go by ..... what? Europeans took science light years ahead, how did that happen? Surely it was the church studies to start with?

Originally posted by snowinscotland
but where did that lead them? They may have been ahead for a long period but that lead was let go by ..... what? Europeans took science light years ahead, how did that happen? Surely it was the church studies to start with?

You should read Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel". The European advantage mainly relates to having a long east-west axis as opposed to religion. Let's face it, most of Africa is Christian, so where is their killer technology?

Originally posted by scottishinnz
You should read Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel". The European advantage mainly relates to having a long east-west axis as opposed to religion. Let's face it, most of Africa is Christian, so where is their killer technology?

ditto

Do pay attention to the key developments of European from Middle Eastern civilization, as Diamond points out: domesticated animals producing lethal pathogens, legal pathogens infecting and killing American indigenes (guns are little more than a footnote in true accounts of the European conquest of the Americas).

Originally posted by scottishinnz
You should read Jared Diamond's book "Guns, Germs and Steel". The European advantage mainly relates to having a long east-west axis as opposed to religion. Let's face it, most of Africa is Christian, so where is their killer technology?

African religion was imported from europe/middle east ...

I'm not saying that Christianity = killer technology, what i am saying is that somewhere along the line religion must offer some advantage, or it would die out, like communism. I was just wondering aloud if it was monotheism that somehow offered the intellectual concentration?

Originally posted by snowinscotland
African religion was imported from europe/middle east ...

I'm not saying that Christianity = killer technology, what i am saying is that somewhere along the line religion must offer some advantage, or it would die out, like communism. I was just wondering aloud if it was monotheism that somehow offered the intellectual concentration?

Again:

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Take a look at The Sacred Canopy by Peter L. Burger and In the Spirit of the Earth by Calvin Luther Martin. Both show the relationship between the emergence of Monotheism and the quest for social and political power during the Neolithic Revolution.

The key issue here is that monotheism grew with a more highly centered structure of power. In order to maintain this power, the rulers established centers of learning (so as to control the development of ideas). Creating these centers of learning, they began to fund research to the benefit of technology and science.

Add greater and longer exposure to lethan pathogens (and hence the development of immunities) to their centralized political organization, and the resulting technology, and it becomes easier to understand how Europeans succeeded in colonizing the globe.

Nevertheless, calling this advantage evolutionary simply obscures that we are all one people from an evolutionary perspective.

Originally posted by snowinscotland
African religion was imported from europe/middle east ...

I'm not saying that Christianity = killer technology, what i am saying is that somewhere along the line religion must offer some advantage, or it would die out, like communism. I was just wondering aloud if it was monotheism that somehow offered the intellectual concentration?

what i am saying is that somewhere along the line religion must offer some advantage, or it would die out, like communism.

Not true. It would survive unless it caused a disadvantage. It could be neutral.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
ditto

Do pay attention to the key developments of European from Middle Eastern civilization, as Diamond points out: domesticated animals producing lethal pathogens, legal pathogens infecting and killing American indigenes (guns are little more than a footnote in true accounts of the European conquest of the Americas).

True, but remember the climate was cooler back then (c. 13,000 BP) - we'd just came out of an ice age - much of Northern Europe hadn't had much time to re-vegetate, and even Southern Europe was probably relatively cold in winter.

As the climate warmed, vegetation from further south would have migrated (slightly) further north, bringing it into the main European East-West axis.

The problem with North - South axes is that the migrations North or South go across climatic zones, which makes growing crops that evolved in one climate in another climate difficult.

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
[b] what i am saying is that somewhere along the line religion must offer some advantage, or it would die out, like communism.

Not true. It would survive unless it caused a disadvantage. It could be neutral.[/b]

Even if it was a disadvantage, that is no guarantee that it will die out. Evolution is very complex and often undesirable traits continue to exist because they are related to other desirable traits. Many examples of this exist. It is not enough to claim that because a trait exists then it is either beneficial or at worst not disadvantagous.

Originally posted by snowinscotland
Go on - the dominance of Judism, Christianity and Muslim is due to .... what?

Mostly due to political and cultural reasons. If China had colonized most of the world then more of the world would be Buddhist. I suspect that Judaism has not spread as much as Christianity and Islam mostly because of the lack of evangelism to non-Jewish people.

I suspect that having a large old mystic book is much more significant in terms of the ability for a religion to spread than monotheism is.