Science of Religion

I'd like to discuss possible scientific explanations for why people are religious, for example psychological, sociological or anthropological explanations. Any thoughts?

Most anthropologists agree that spiritual belief systems emerged among early hunter-gatherer communities as a way of giving people a belief that they had some measure of power over the world. Things which were out of their control, for example the weather, climate, fertility, animals etc. they thought to be under the control of intelligent spiritual beings such as daemons, gods or goddesses. By appeasing these spirits with rites, offerings and sacrifices, early humans felt that they could influence nature and this in turn helped them feel secure and less powerless.

Over time these primordial belief systems developed more complex theologies and greater philosophical implications for people.

his is going to sound rather cliche, but I've always thought tht people beleive(d) in a higher power to explain things that the then present science could not.

I were going to make a thread for this after watching this video, please do watch it, it is called how to discuss god scientifically and explores this idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIRoSYcOejo

Or maybe thats a different thing altogether, it is relating to how to test religious ideas scientifically, not the science behind why people choose to believe.

But as I can see it, religious beliefs exist, and there are far too many to validate any one of them as being real, also there is no proof or evidence. If there was a god, it would be scientifically testable as the video explains.

Thanks, but not precisely what I had in mind.

Yea, I just saw the thread title and thought of that video lol.

Religion exists as a means to try to explain what people do not understand. We can already have very logical reasons and even evidence behind anything, but someone who does not understand these concepts may still turn to religion to understand them.
Modern religion has also heavily implemented the belief of 'Heaven, hell and souls' into many peoples minds. They may choose to believe this for many reasons, but the main reasons are things like not wanting to believe in permanent death, wanting to believe that they will be conscious after death, living a life under the belief of pursuing eternal happiness in heaven, believing that humans are superior to animals and that we live on after death etc etc.

Certainly people create myths and legends to explain events that are beyond their comprehension, but while these are invariably entangled with religious traditions are they the same as actual religious observance, i.e. worship, religious tradition and rites? Normally the observance of religious tradition demands that adherents endorse particular myths and legends. I suppose ignorance about nature and reality is an important factor in feelings of control over it.

This is what I believe. Some people cannot understand, or refuse to accept the knowledge about reality, and require a belief system to cope with such issues that they either cannot understand, do not believe, or that they do not agree with.

As a completely rubbish example, most people would agree that murderers are evil disgusting people that deserve to be imprisoned and rot in hell forever. However, under a belief system, I could if I wanted to choose to believe that murderers are angels sent down by god to provide people with a sweet release from existence so that they get to go to heaven faster, as a means of creating a reason for my brain to understand and accept the concept of murder. Similar beliefs to this are also a reason why some people choose to kill others in the name of religion, as we see happening in the world today.

Of course I dont believe this, but I could do if I wanted to, or were brainwashed to, and this to me makes as much sense as believing in anything to do with religion does.

And then I could continue to argue that my belief of murderers is correct, because you cannot disprove that they are in fact angels sent to us by god.

You raise two very significant issues there.

Firstly, about heaven and (far more importantly) hell. We often feel outrage and hatred towards certain members of society, normally people who break taboos and social conventions, even if they didn't actually affect us. We tend to want revenge against them - this is a very deeply-ingrained part of our psychology. Since revenge is unlikely to be exacted against them in real life, we satisfy our hatred by believing that they will ultimately receive extreme punishment in a spiritual (and therefore unverifiable) context: they will go to hell and be tortured, or they will be reincarnated as a snail or something similar.

Secondly, you mentioned that they use religion to cope with things they don't understand or can't accept. It is well-known among sociologists and psychologists that the majority of people who convert to a new belief system (or discard it) do so in times of emotional stress, grief or change. The majority of converts are adolescents, and many of the rest are adults experiencing the loss of a loved one or some other tragedy or crisis. So religion is rarely adopted as a purely rational choice but as an emotive reaction to trauma or disillusionment - it is a psychological coping mechanism.

I smiled when I wrote this but maybe?
Wash Kostinko
RELIG0N6 12-11-88
ATHIESTIC AGNOSTIC, RELIGIOUS
I believe that the atheist, the agnostic, and the
believer when they say that there was no GOD and that there may not be a GOD. I also agree with the Christians, Jews, Moslems, and others in their basic belief that there is a GOD.
And both are absolutely right in the context of their inability to view humanity as a continually evolving species.
There is no reason to deny Darwins "theory of
evolution" and there is no reason why we should not believe in the existence of a universal super entity uniting all life which was EVOLVING to the next level.
So life began with the formation of organic material,
which instinctively clung to life by adapting to changing
environments and progressively became more complex over
several tens of millions years to configure as humans such as we.

Then ten or twenty thousands (maybe hundreds of
thousands) years ago an event occurred which added an unique "quality" to the life of one or more humans- not physically or mentally- but spiritually. I call it the "light of life". An energy force uniting the life lines of the living progeny to everlasting life after the carrier perishes..
EVOLUTON! It is not the last!
WASH
Someting to think about!?

'Religion is the opiate of the people' or something like that. I tend to agree with that.

So you think religion is meant to control or subdue people? Has it always been a means of control?

Not exclusively as a means of control but to numb people from the reality that we will die and not have any apparent after life. Fear of death is within most of us so it would make sense for people to want to create a belief system that saves us from that prospect.

But I think at times throughout history it most certainly has been used as a means of control, e.g. the slaves in America were told to follow a Christian ideology that fuelled the belief that black people were inferior to the white people. Also the connections with the Church and the Government in the UK had an element of control within them.

WOW..soo many reasons, so many denials. Obviously this is not the place for such an in-depth discussions so I will try and be brief and hope that I don't sound like a complete moron. Mankind has alot of mental issues. Fear is just one of those & Loneliness and Power are two of the biggies. Being rejected by the group or not having any Control, are huge motivators for organized RULES. Hence religion. Rules=Religion

Ya got to find a way to make them afraid of NOT obeying

The big bang theory actually points very strongly towards a creator.

It's my personal opinion that religion started as a means to gain power. What better way to control people than by putting the fear of God into them? And the church basically ran the world from ancient Greece to only a few hundred years ago.