Roots of Religion from the Evolutionary Perspective
By Syed Manzoor Alam, New Age Islam
December 08, 2013
Throughout history and across all cultures why have humans been so prone to believe in higher powers and to be religious? Religion has many aspects but for this article the basic idea is related to supernatural powers with “agencies” to affect human behaviour.
It is clear that these beliefs and practices have appeared in some form since we became species, primarily on evidence from burial rituals, existing about a hundred and twenty five thousand years ago. Much more elaborate organisation of religious practices emerged with the advent of agriculture and civilization, around ten to twelve thousand years ago. All known societies have been permeated with religion, even in “secular” countries like India and America, where over 90% of the general public believes in Higher Powers.
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