Sooner or later any serious student or historian of religion will encounter Jonathan Z. Smith, he of the infamous quip — “there is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s study.” A curious statement indeed coming from one of the most prominent historians of religion, whose entire career and oeuvre [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation'
Phylogeny of Religions
September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Tags:classification schemes·costly signaling·essentializing·F. Max Muller·group level selection·Imagining Religion: From Bablyon to Jonestown·increased fertility·Jonathan Z. Smith·moral glue·multilinear evolution·religious cartography·religious classification·religious history·religious phylogeny·religious taxonomy·ritual signaling·science of religion·social cohesion·unilinear evolution
Evolution as Salvation for Theology? Not So.
August 5th, 2010 · No Comments · Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Philosophy of Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
In May of this year, John Avise — an evolutionary biologist at UC-Irvine — published an article (“Footprints of Nonsentient Design Inside the Human Genome“) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s leading scientific journals. The article, which attacked Intelligent Design “theory” on the ground that an omnipotent and [...]
Tags:accomodationists·Adam and Eve·Augustine of Hippo·Catholic theologians·Diarmaid MacCulloch·fall from grace·Footprints of Nonsentient Design Inside the Human Genome·human genome·intelligent design·John Avise·justification for God·Leibniz·non-overlapping magisteria·non-sentient selection·problem of evil·problem of suffering·Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences·Protestants·rebellion·sin·Stephen Jay Gould·The Reformation·theodicy·theology·unintelligent design
Galileo: Religious or Secular Saint?
July 24th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Methodology of Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Shamans and Shamanism
In the New York Times Science section, Rachel Donadio reports on a museum in Florence that treats Galileo as both a “secular” and “religious” saint; the curators thus commingle two concepts (the secular/religious) that were being developed during the Renaissance and which reached fruition during the Enlightenment:
The Galileo case is often seen starkly as science’s [...]
Tags:beatification·Catholic Church·Christianity·cosmology·enlightenment·essentializing·excommunication·Florence·Formations of the Secular·Galileo·Gallileo Museum·Genealogies of Religion·heretic·Islam·Naturalization·Rachel Donadio·relics·religious·Renaissance·saint·secular·Talal Asad·William Conolly
Evolution of Altruism, Group Level Selection, and George Price
July 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Atheism and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Over at Discover, Razib Khan has reviewed Oren Harman’s new book The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness. It is fantastic review and I encourage you to read it. Price was many things, including a theoretical evolutionary biologist with considerable mathematical skills. As Razib explains:
George Price’s aim was [...]
Tags:altruism·cooperation·dove·evolution of religion·evolutionary theory·Fisher's theorem of natural selection·George Price·goodness·group level selection·group level selectionists·hawk·inclusive fitness·morphs·Oren Harman·Paleolithic·Razib Khan·Richard Dawkins·The Price of Altruism
Religious Wars and Nationalism
July 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Power and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Over at HuffPo Religion, Matt Rossano has written a thought provoking piece — which some may find surprising — on the relationship between war and religion. In Why Religion Does Not Equal War, Rossano begins with the common knowledge that religious differences often lead to war, or that religious differences are often used to justify [...]
Tags:aggression·Arabs·Civil Religion·conflict·Cyrus the Great·Darius the Great·Egyptian pharaoh·God & War: An Audit & An Exploration·god-kings·Greek-Persian wars·Greg Austin·group cohesion·Israelis·Jews·kinship·Matt Rossano·Muslims·nationalism·religion·Religious War Audit·religious wars·Thom Oommen·Todd Kranock·war·Why Religion Does Not Equal War·Xerxes the Great
The “Sin” of Sodomy and Demographic Imperatives
July 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Morality and Religion, Power and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Ritual and Religion
When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method. So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality. We can therefore trace the history of the [...]
Tags:Assyria·Assyrian Empire·Aztec sacrifice·Babylolian captivity·Catholicism·Christians·demographics·demography·early Christianity·Egyptian captivity·fertility·group size·Hebrews·homosexuality·India's sacred cow·Jewish diaspora·Jews·Judaism·Levant·Lost Tribes of Judah·marriage·Marvin Harris·Mesopotamia·Michael Harner·Mormons·natural law·persecution·pork eating proscription·procreation·prohibition against homosexuality·Ralph Tanner·ritual regulations·same-sex preference·sin of sodomy·slavery·sodomy·taboo·taboos·The Social Ecology of Religion·Vernon Reynolds·warfare
Recent Human Evolution and Religion
July 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Most anthropologists date the appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens to approximately 150,000 years ago. It was at about this time that the skeletal structure of Homo becomes indistinguishable from modern humans. This does not mean, however, that human evolution simply stopped; evolution encompasses changes not only to skeletal structures but also to brain chemistry, [...]
Tags:accelerated human evolution·anatomically modern Homo sapiens·cultural imprinting·cultural patterning·earliest organized religions·fertility selection·group level selection·John Hawks·Neolithic Revolution·recent adaptations·recent human evolution
Perfectly Designed: Bananas and Religion
July 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Morality and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Ritual and Religion
In this classic video, Kirk Cameron explains — in all seriousness — how God perfectly and exquisitely designed the banana for human use and consumption:
Although the banana’s functional and optimal design features may not cause nightmares for those who understand that bananas evolved like all other plants and were domesticated (i.e., selected) by humans, they [...]
Tags:adaptationist programme·adaptationists·atheists·banana·bananas·creation·design·Dr. Pangloss·Eden·functionalism·group level selection·group level selectionists·Homo antecessor·Homo heidelbergensis·Kirk Cameron·morals·Paleolithic religion·Panglossian Paradigm·paradise·prosocial·rituals·spandrels