Brin-l Digest, Vol 369, Issue 6

[Ronn! Blankenship]

At 09:48 PM Saturday 2/23/2008, hkhenson wrote:
>At 01:00 PM 2/23/2008, William T Goodall wrote:
>
> >Religion has a vested interest in discouraging critical thinking.
>
>I think it's *much* worse than that.
>
>In "Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War" I make a
>case that the psychological trait(s) for religion arose as part of
>the  complex set of traits for wars.  Religions are seed xenophobic
>memes. In times where the population sees a bleak future, they become
>more influential.  Eventually they served to synch up the warriors
>for a do or die attack on neighbors.  Even though the warriors may
>have died, the genes were always better off than starving.
>
>One of the effect of this complex of traits is to shut off rational
>thinking.  It's not rational at the personal level to go out and try
>to kill neighbors, but in some circumstances the interest of a person
>and their genes diverge.
>
>Religions give "reason" to take such chances.
>
>Keith


So where in this hypothesis do #s 5 through 10 of the Ten 
Commandments, the Second Great Commandment, and the Golden Rule fit?


-- Ronn!  :)