Christianity, an evolutionary advantage

Based on evolutionary logic, if man has created religion and it has been adopted by the vast majority of the population of the world, it must be an evolutionary advantage to be religious. Religious people have reproduced more and have clearly beat out those ancient non-religious people.
Christianity is the worlds largest and for this reason, "fittest" religion. Therefore it is most evolutionarily advantageous to become a christian. Based on this atheists who read this should convert to Christianity. If you don't, your genetic characteristics will not continue and you will be beaten out by us crazy religious people!

Your post shows a clear lack of understanding of evolutionary theory. First off religion is a malleable characteristic for the individual whereas evolution relies upon inheritance to function effectively. This ductile principle is one of the things that makes social evolution a failure (and you are espousing social evolution in your post), however that's not the only way in which your logic fails.

Just because something has a trait in evolution does not mean that said trait *must* have an advantage, and just because a trait is possessed by a majority of a given population does not mean that said trait is overwhelmingly advantageous. A given trait can exist in a population because in the recent past it was advantageous but is now a liability, or because in the moderate or distant past it was advantageous and is currently neutral towards survival, useless traits can also arise because they are the resultant properties of other useful traits. Further, homogeny in a gene pool is a greater risk to a population than heterogeny, therefore it's advantageous for a population to possess multiple traits, whether they be shorter and longer beaks, sharper and duller claws, slower and faster metabolisms, etc.

Your supposition that everyone should become Christian because it's the dominant and ergo 'fittest' religion is false on every one of these points- dominance does not necesserily mean advantage in evolution, homogeny is actually a liability rather than a benefit, and social evolution is a failed hypothesis. I can only conclude that you do not possess sufficient knowledge about evolution to have a valid opinion on the matter.

//As a side note, this is a real debate- Does religion have a current benefit to humanity, is it a byproduct of other useful traits, or was it at one time an advanage but now is not? If you look on TED, you might find some of the talks about this very subject.

Religion is a great advantage in a primitive world, mostly because of the strong 'us-vs.-them'-ism. Outsiders are either shunned, killed or converted, and we've seen this disgusting pattern throughout recorded history. We've come a long way since these dark ages though, and in our modern day environment religious traits seem rather like disadvantages than advantages.

That's an important thing to realize concerning evolution, i.e. that traits' impact on fitness depends on the respective environment in which the traits operate. Traits that make one fit in one environment, can make one unfit in another. That is one reason why the OP fails.

Another reason why the OP fails is that being fit (i.e. having many offspring) is not necessarily a goal one must have if one accepts the theory of evolution. For instance many choose happiness and personal freedom as goals over the spreading of one's genetic material. Scientific theories are merely descriptive, they don't inform us about how we're supposed to live our lifes.

Peter

He might be closer than you guys think. It's long been a hypothesis of mine that the development of Christianity mimics (in sociology) the natural selection of biology. They expand, they reproduce (or convert), and they persist through extreme famine (or persecution). They are, in effect, the cockroach of the world's religions.

In fact, this explains the extreme agressiveness of their beliefs. Their very success at converting (or invading, from time to time) nonbelievers has subsequently made their religion rather populous. It is the agressive beliefs that will persist through the generations.

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On "illegal" immigration:
"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..." -The Statue of Liberty

On the alleged connection between Hitler and Atheism:
"For it was by the Will of God that men were made of a certain bodily shape, were given their natures and their faculties." -Hitler, Mein Kampf, Volume II, Chapter X

Danth's Law: "If you have to insist that you've won an internet argument, you've probably lost badly."

This sounds very similar to Susan Blackmore's theory of memes; that religions evolved by human selection preferring some ideas and beliefs systems over others. Christianity overcame the survival of the fittest ideas with its favourable traits such as the promise of eternal paradise, threats of hell, threats of violence, etc. Of course, there's no evidence that this explanation is anything other than an analogy.

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You must take your place in the great circle of...stuff.

Um....no.

Unless the religious are going to start making being religious a matter of "survival", i.e. committing genocide on atheists, which I really hope isn't the intention, then it should still persist in some form.

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While religion might be a descendary matter, meaning that you believe what you were taught by your parents, I doubt that it is genetic.

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Hier sitz´ich, forme Menschen
Nach meinem Bilde,
Ein Geschlecht, das mir gleich sei,
Zu leiden, zu weinen,
Zu genießen und zu freuen sich
Und dein nicht zu achten,
Wie ich!

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Prometheus)

Considering how widespread religion is and has been, I'm sure that there are genetic factors involved. Even when organized religion is removed, whether by force or voluntarily, mysticism and quasi-religions seem to creep in instead.

Peter

The question is really whether religion itself confers an advantage, or if it is an artifact of another adaptation that confers an advantage.

For example, seeing patterns in randomness can help identify prey, or a predator, for a human hunter. The same thought process could lead one to see a concsious intention in what appears random.

__________________
On "illegal" immigration:
"Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses longing to be free..." -The Statue of Liberty

On the alleged connection between Hitler and Atheism:
"For it was by the Will of God that men were made of a certain bodily shape, were given their natures and their faculties." -Hitler, Mein Kampf, Volume II, Chapter X

Danth's Law: "If you have to insist that you've won an internet argument, you've probably lost badly."

I'm of the byproduct camp. Religious belief in and of itself does not confer any inherent benefits, but such things as anthropomorphication, causal thinking, tribalism, and symbolic reasoning all have historical survival advantages, and they each contribute to religious thought.