I'm glad you posted this, Prometheus. I think it's entirely viable that, whatever the initial impetus for religion was, its continued success is due to its positive effects. A very interesting idea, indeed.
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Quote by: tman_ndsu08 I also disagree that it's better for human children to have 2 parents. I think mother's are programmed by evolution to care for their children until their children can live on their own. While some fathers are certainly capable of helping to raise their own children, they're simply not programmed for it. |
I'm afraid I'll have to disagree here. I can't speak with explicit knowledge of this issue with regard to humans, but I learned something of how it works with birds. Birds mate for a season in which they are not supposed to fool around, basically; however, the female sometimes sees a better mate and messes around. If the male discovers this, he will abandon her and usually her eggs do not survive that abandonment. I know it isn't quite the same with humans, but consider how beneficial it is to have more than one provider, to have more attention to direct at the offspring. I'm not saying it's better in all cases, but I think it's pretty clear that it is in the majority.