The underlying reason that we as humans cannot follow the advice of Jesus of Nazareth is that we are selfish. What this quote is saying is that what ever action or item you would want to get from someone you should return something of equal value. Having that sense of equal reciprocity is against human nature. Throughout the history of human evolution, it is the selfish ones that survive (Dawkins 2006) . Selfishness goes along with competition with both starting very early in our evolutionary history. Selfishness is something that permeates all levels of humans, because if our ancestors weren’t selfish then the people alive today would not be (Dawkins 2006). Overall the reason that people have trouble following the ideals represented in the
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The basis of this theory is that religion allows for higher cooperation in groups during instances of strife. One instance of strife could be during intergroup conflict or when there is a ecological crisis (Sosis et al., 2003). During an intergroup conflict religion would allow for a sense of agency that made people stay under one idea which would in turn allow them to work better in the group during the conflict. In order for the group to work together during a conflict there can be no question of commitment to the group. This commitment could be shown by the honest signaling hypothesis. This hypothesis is all about the idea of an action that is to costly to fake which shows dedication to a member groups. The example would be the haredi Jews who where these heavy layers of clothing in the sun. If they did not have complete commitment to this religion they would not were these clothes in the hot sun. This honest signal proves that they are committed to the group because this action is too costly to fake. By proving the commitment to the group they are able to maintain group cooperation even if there is a slight cost to themselves (Sosis, 2004). Which once again helps both the individual and group survive during instances of strife. While religion could have originated from group solidarity there is also datathat could disprove this theory. If the whole part of being in this group is survival, then what about people who are unable to reproduce. In some religions there is a requirement of self-mutilation, self-sacrifice, or celibacy. All of which would prevent an individual from being able to reproduce. This is an action to join the group that would be so severe that is would not increase your survival and would end up becoming something so costly. Overall the origin of religion is something that has been debated for a long time and has
The basis of this theory is that religion allows for higher cooperation in groups during instances of strife. One instance of strife could be during intergroup conflict or when there is a ecological crisis (Sosis et al., 2003). During an intergroup conflict religion would allow for a sense of agency that made people stay under one idea which would in turn allow them to work better in the group during the conflict. In order for the group to work together during a conflict there can be no question of commitment to the group. This commitment could be shown by the honest signaling hypothesis. This hypothesis is all about the idea of an action that is to costly to fake which shows dedication to a member groups. The example would be the haredi Jews who where these heavy layers of clothing in the sun. If they did not have complete commitment to this religion they would not were these clothes in the hot sun. This honest signal proves that they are committed to the group because this action is too costly to fake. By proving the commitment to the group they are able to maintain group cooperation even if there is a slight cost to themselves (Sosis, 2004). Which once again helps both the individual and group survive during instances of strife. While religion could have originated from group solidarity there is also datathat could disprove this theory. If the whole part of being in this group is survival, then what about people who are unable to reproduce. In some religions there is a requirement of self-mutilation, self-sacrifice, or celibacy. All of which would prevent an individual from being able to reproduce. This is an action to join the group that would be so severe that is would not increase your survival and would end up becoming something so costly. Overall the origin of religion is something that has been debated for a long time and has