<story><title>The Science of the Benefits of Religion</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/psychologists-religion-how-god-works/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lalaland1125</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting to think of religion as a societal tool that has co-evolved along with humanity.&lt;p&gt;Societies with more beneficial religions would prosper and societies with less beneficial religious would die out.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s thus no surprise that the religions that survived until the present day promote human survival. For example, it&amp;#x27;s no accident that most major religions heavily encourage their followers to have a lot of kids.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sali0</author><text>I used to be a very hard headed atheist until I read the book &amp;quot;The Secrets of our Success&amp;quot; by Joseph Heinlein. That book speaks of how culture evolved along with genetics, and it made me realize how important tradition and religion really are to society. I am still atheist, but now very much encourage religious people to stay with their faith and continue their worship. There are definitely downsides to religion, but ultimately they encourage strong communal and familial values, which I think are very lacking in my generation.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Science of the Benefits of Religion</title><url>https://www.wired.com/story/psychologists-religion-how-god-works/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>lalaland1125</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting to think of religion as a societal tool that has co-evolved along with humanity.&lt;p&gt;Societies with more beneficial religions would prosper and societies with less beneficial religious would die out.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s thus no surprise that the religions that survived until the present day promote human survival. For example, it&amp;#x27;s no accident that most major religions heavily encourage their followers to have a lot of kids.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klipt</author><text>&amp;gt; For example, it&amp;#x27;s no accident that most major religions heavily encourage their followers to have a lot of kids.&lt;p&gt;I noticed looking at my family tree, that basically all the secular branches have below replacement fertility, while the more religious branches have above replacement.&lt;p&gt;Ironically it seems secularism is the ultimate proselytizing ideology, it seems it can&amp;#x27;t grow its own base through reproduction, it can only tempt the religious to abandon their religion and enjoy secular freedoms with fewer responsibilities (like fewer kids) - but it has to repeat this process at every generation to survive.&lt;p&gt;Also ironic that secular society holds up the theory of evolution as a reason we no longer need religion, yet it seems evolution itself favors the religious with more descendents!</text></comment>