Love the way the that some contributors feel free to comment authoritatively on an article or document without having read it.
Yes we have, it is called confirmation bias, we developed many protocols to go around it, we need to study and understand statistics, apply blind ( the test subject don't know if it is on test or control group), double blind (the one administrating the test does not know which is test, which is control also) and even triple blind (the guy that takes care of statistics don't know which group is control of test) tests to go around it.
We have science the last 3 centuries, before that evolution played the role for thousands.
A false negative is dangerous on life/tribe level, a false positive is most cases is just a small waste of energy, so we are hardwired to see patterns even if they are false.
The same way that to be clean and hygienic demands some effort, we need some effort to go around our confirmation bias and see the world in an objectively way.
Understand and never underestimate this mechanism, even a lot of atheists have their small faiths and beliefs that are analogous to a religion.
No!
It is a pure tribalism, the need to belong with the group that they were raise within!
Yes they do. This is a very good article—thanks for posting.
I believe they have a social instinct.
You nailed it. There are a folks who don't have that need and there are folks like me who have that need but don't like to be in clubs or organized groups, with the exception of bands of course, and even those introverts who aren't comfortable socializing in person so they socialize online.
I read it and I don't think there is a religion instinct in a human being. What we have are natural weaknesses of the mind such as insecurity and fear of the known and the unkowns.
Here is how:
There is also an impulse to be a slave, which is related to the impulse to be a child forever (at least in may flavors of religion). Hitchens has pointed this out.
Others of us are born with personalities that reject both of those (often even as children). Maybe this is why most of the founders of the US were deists, rejected the "Divine Right of Kings", and signed their name to the treasonous document that would have ensured their heads were separated from their bodies if they lost their war against their King (parent).