Journey Through Faith: Religious and Social Beings

I came across an interesting article tonight:

Humans are hardwired to believe in God.

The point about religion as a social construct has been prevalent amongst my thoughts recently. I mean, organised religion is still so strong even in this age of scientific progress, which would suggest that there is more to it than simply believing that some mysterious being created the world in six days. It would make sense that there is some point in religion other than to hope for a better afterlife.

My opinion - and it is just opinion - is that religion provides a moral fabric which a group of people can use to build a society upon. It doesn't have to be logically sound, nor does it even have to be a positive set of rules; it just has to be present such that people can act in the same way. Perhaps it really is an evolutionary feature, whereby acting in groups simply provides a better survival strategy than flying solo.

Whilst I am an atheist, I remain superstitious in many ways, usually as a means to explain the inexplicable. It's strangely comforting and empowering, the positive side to belief and faith. Perhaps this is evolutionary bias towards religious participation coming into play. I don't know, but it's something I intend to think about.

I'll return to this topic at some point.