Jared Diamond - Can Religion Be Explained Without God?

Religion without God? Most people believe that God exists and religion is God's revelation. But some say religion, particularly the organization of religion into institutions, needs nothing supernatural to begin, develop and multiply. In other words, religion without God can flourish because personal psychology and group sociology drive religion.

[jonnanderson]

Humans have the the capacity to believe prior to any religion. It seems a belief in water over the next hill has adaptive benefit, because if most of us couldn't believe we wouldn't even try to seek water.

[spiritualworldquora]

The evolutionary and cultural anthropological comments are the most valuable in this discussion, but in my opinion they do not go far enough.We do not need to go back to the first king to study the evolution of religion. A new religion was created 2, 000 years ago, and this one should be studied in greater detail to investigate: 1) the creation of a new religion and 2) the evolution of the religion and what purposes do they serve. Jesus and His 12 disciples created a new religion - How did this occur? Who did it serve? It has evolved in thousands of directions (sects) and now who do these sects serve? The same study could be made with Islam and Bahá'í faiths to compare. All were created around a dynamic figure. I believe that the questions of 1) Why were they created in the first place? and 2) How and Why did they evolve into what they are today?

[ForOrAgainstUs]

I think one unasked question (though hinted regarding the culture versus genes comment) is whether it's possible to live without religion if humans evolved to have religion. That implies it is biological. So to reject religion under the rationalization of, "We've outgrown it as a species, " is not to necessarily reject any genetic or biological component. So the atheist will still be religious to an extent, and therefore to what extent is a person religious without religion?

[ErolRashit]

Religion is often assumed, both by those who practice it and by those who criticise it, to be based upon a belief in God. This is particularly so in the West which has inherited the theistic emphasis of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Like science, however, religion is more properly understood in terms of its aims and methodologies. Both science and religion provide systematic means for investigating the nature of existence, but whereas science is a logical approach to discovering the structure of things in the universe and how they function, religion aims at a direct awareness of what, if anything, underlies or transcends the powers of nature and human agency.

[bobs]

Religion is a triabl group identity which imcludes the social group bonding.

[teachphilosophy]

Thank you for this series (Closer to Truth). I think the advanced alien civilization will have religion within it (e.g. a belief in a transcendent reality that one cannot know through reason/science/logic alone... must be intuited or experienced)... and they will better understand the limits of reason than we primitive apes do. They will also better understand the uses and misuses of evolution, etc.

[Μύρων-βτ]

His book about the amusement of sex was very good and informative.

[syedyousuf]

Religion is reason first, then submission, going far beyond reason and perception.
And it is the ultimate truth inherently embedded in human genes, therefore it’s light can never be extinguished.
It’s the highest level of cognition achieved by human mind using the same tools of sensory reception or methodology as in science in addition to use of intellect and experiential evidences.

[twirlipofthemists]

Religion can only be explained without gods.

[michelvandepol]

advertisement for a bible in this video, hahahahhahahhahha

[barelyprotestant]

Hey, Jared! Tell me you hate religion without telling me you hate religion.

[sottiki]

Jainism, Buddhism, Sankhya etc are religions/philosophies without any God. West is not the whole world.

[totalfreedom]

Dr Diamond is an awesome polymath. Note that he doesn't use these expressions, which, among many others, shouldn’t be in a scientist’s vocabulary because they are lame and lousy: the God gene, the God particle, intelligent design, common sense, to tell the truth, to be honest (with you), with all due respect, beg the question, you know (what I mean), don’t judge a book by its cover….

When some scientists venture from the physical into the metaphysical they do so at their peril. Why? Because science can *neither prove nor disprove* metaphysical ideas in religion, mythology, and the occult like God, gods, devas, angels, the Great White Brotherhood, ghosts, and so on. 💕 ☮ 🌎 🌌

[sammysam]

Religion was created perhaps by mistake but most likely for the purpose of explaining the unknown world to ancient people. Even before religion as we now know it, people believed in Gods. Organized religion of today is the evolution of minds from ancient man. There were no true answers then and religion still doesn't have an answer just a claim(s) that is believed by billions in different ways. Yet not one of the countless of religions has ever proven that their God(s) exist, and because of that fact, they came up with Faith, "I can't show you, you just have to believe me and admit you're wrong"

[uremove]

Hmmm... I hesitate to disagree with such an eminent anthropologist as Dr Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel is a brilliant book), but I’m not convinced by the ‘cause of things’ origin for Religion, which Dennett also champions. Religion isn’t Science!
D.S. Wilson in “Darwin’s Cathedral” explains religion in much more basic evolutionary terms of ‘multilevel selection’. Religion binds people together (etymology: ligo, ligere (Latin) to bind), and more successful religions facilitate individual investment in the group, over narrow self interest. Tribes that cooperated better, survived!

Seems to me also more likely that all intelligent beings (including aliens) would attempt to envisage a Cosmos, much of which is deeply mysterious, about which they develop an oral tradition, which passes down the generations. We do the same in educating our children. Many aboriginal cultures use psychedelic ‘sacred’ plants which they would cite as evidence of the ‘spirit world’, the entities which inhabit it being culturally conditioned through the mythological stories told. Terence McKenna talked of ‘electric elves’ which he encountered using DMT, and consulted ‘The Mushroom’ on psilocybin, which he believed was sentient, and like a vast alien mind. Are these parts of our own minds!

[vladimir]

I guess it would have to be, since there is no god

[raimundohenriques]

Diamond is doing a Icarous fly in this topic propus and vanity Koke a child