http://evolution-of-religion.com/2009/07/21/the-puzzle-of-human-cooperation/ Blogs on the evolution of religion Sat, 19 May 2012 02:30:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 http://evolution-of-religion.com/2009/07/21/the-puzzle-of-human-cooperation/comment-page-1/#comment-16476 J. A. LeFevre Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:35:45 +0000 http://evolution-of-religion.com/?p=1052#comment-16476 Every question stands to benefit when alternate perspectives are taken to examine it, and I would propose to look at this question as an archeological exercise: Do we know anything of the degrees of religion in human society? Can we evaluate some nominal metric for cooperation? Early or Shaman led religions (spiritualism) first appeared about 70,000 years ago and Organized Religion (had temples and/or priests) 11,000 years ago. Spiritual communities distinguished themselves from their non-spiritual brethren by (short list of differences): Longer lifespan, larger groups or bands, much more rapid innovation in tool usage and in usage of natural resources. Improved cooperation could explain each of those differences. With organized religion, there was an even more dramatic increase in group size and innovation rates, but a drop in lifespan. Improved cooperation could explain the increases while disease (crowded, unsanitary living) and diet (single grain agriculture vs. wide hunter-gatherer diet diversity) are understood to explain the drop in lifespan. Every question stands to benefit when alternate perspectives are taken to examine it, and I would propose to look at this question as an archeological exercise: Do we know anything of the degrees of religion in human society? Can we evaluate some nominal metric for cooperation? Early or Shaman led religions (spiritualism) first appeared about 70,000 years ago and Organized Religion (had temples and/or priests) 11,000 years ago. Spiritual communities distinguished themselves from their non-spiritual brethren by (short list of differences): Longer lifespan, larger groups or bands, much more rapid innovation in tool usage and in usage of natural resources. Improved cooperation could explain each of those differences. With organized religion, there was an even more dramatic increase in group size and innovation rates, but a drop in lifespan. Improved cooperation could explain the increases while disease (crowded, unsanitary living) and diet (single grain agriculture vs. wide hunter-gatherer diet diversity) are understood to explain the drop in lifespan.

]]> http://evolution-of-religion.com/2009/07/21/the-puzzle-of-human-cooperation/comment-page-1/#comment-2351 Willian Forys Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:00:47 +0000 http://evolution-of-religion.com/?p=1052#comment-2351 While this issue can be very vexed for most people, my thought is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you've added pertinent and sound commentary here though. Thank you! While this issue can be very vexed for most people, my thought is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do value that you’ve added pertinent and sound commentary here though. Thank you!

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