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BTW... to me, all religions are a product of evolutionary biology and evolution. Religions on the whole serve a vital purpose, though that need is of course fading rapidly in the last 100 years or so.
There is a lot about our brain and how it works that causes beliefs such as these. This is an extremely complex discussion but The Biology of Belief is one of many great books on the subject. Religion is wired into our brains just as appreciation of aesthetic beauty, appreciation of music, appreciation of dancing / tendency to dance etc. And to those who claim they aren't religious, you'll find countless firmly held beliefs in their lives which are no more or less rational and whose minds are not easier to change. Ultimately it's a discussion about personal identity, not "reason" and "logic".
Religions are ALL the same at their core. Moral laws, actual laws, how to handle food to mitigate disease, how to maintain good hygiene to mitigate disease, how to handle dead bodies to mitigate disease, how to interact and treat each other as a group, how to fight wars, and ritual and group activities which inspire greater loyalty to the group, inspiring those who fight to fight with more ferocity and less fear etc etc etc.
We are of the VERY FEW truly cooperative species who will cooperate outside of kin altruism. One unrelated primate will not work with another primate for them to save themselves and their offspring. To quote someone else, we are "90% chimpanzee, 10% bee"... meaning we are highly individualistic and pursue selfish goals most of the time but we also tend to fall in with the group when the survival of individuals is at risk.
With the advent of agriculture and larger and larger settlements, came 1000s of new religions, all of which, almost without exception provides the foundations for improved cooperation in larger groups of people in larger and larger cities... we went from bands of 10-20-30 hunter gatherers to 1000s living in tightly closed spaces. cooperation as a group, and those groups who cooperate best, enhances greatly, individual chances of survival.
A simple fact is that people treat each other better and get along better (on the whole) when they believe that they are both being watched 24/7 and believe they will ultimately answer for everything they do and say.
You can't believe in evolution and deny that any species sheds what doesn't work and keeps what works. Religion has existed since the dawn of man. That's not an accident.... it is an essential part of a small groups ability to survive and thrive.
As a species, we are at a crossroads. The millions of years old rules of survival have been tossed out the window in just a couple centuries. Societies are breaking down. Marriages are breaking down. Family values are breaking down. Even male and female identities are breaking down. Even the very idea of genders is now being blurred. Who knows what the future holds for any religion,... the simple fact is that they are dying. There will always be people who believe in "something else" or "a higher power" in their quest for meaning and understanding as its in our genes. But if it wasn't for the fact that certain populations were pumping out shittons more children and then forcing them into religion, it would mostly fade away.
One indisputable truth about mythology in cultures is that the harder their life is, the more they fall back on mythology. The safer they are from attack, the safer they are from starving, the safer they are from disease, the more abundance of food there is, the more mythology starts to fade and play an increasingly diminished role in any society. It's not a coincidence that Islam dominates the worlds harshest environments and most miserable places to live.. it is what generally gives them purpose and meaning and helps to ensure they can more or less live peacefully together without worry about a neighbor fucking your wife, killing you for food, taking your property etc.
The movie Exodus touches on this topic expertly. 10s of 1000s of restless people who had escaped Ramses were all grouped together asking "now what". Some were clearly going to start fighting for power. Cliques would start to form. Tribes within tribes would start to form and in almost no time, they'd be fighting each other.
Moses then ducks out of sight and comes back with the 10 Commandments - What "God" said. Don't kill. Don't steal. Don't fuck your neighbors wife" etc etc etc. A basic legal framework to start to shut these behaviors down and help them coexist and operate more effectively as a large group. In that situation, is it relevant whether or not there is a God? whether the Commandments are really from "God" or is the very point that they multiplied their chances of survival a 100 fold through agreeing to this simple belief?
Does it even matter?
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Yes, fewer illegal immigrants working equates to more job opportunities for American citizens.
Rochard
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