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Chris Fox's avatar

I didn't say it's vestigial tribalism; that would be cultural. I'm saying it has a basis in behavior genetics and until recently it was prudent.

Same for religion, I don't know of any human culture anytime in history that didn't have it. I think that if we had generation ships that went on centuries-long trips to other stars and where religion was unknown to the first generation, the ships would arrive full of mummified corpses anyway because religion would re-arise and bifurcate into opposing groups killing each other over doctrinal minutiae.

I don't mean to discourage; I am not saying we need to learn to live with bigotry. Quite the opposite. I'm saying we need to recognize its origins.

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Steve QJ's avatar

"Same for religion, I don't know of any human culture anytime in history that didn't have it. I think that if we had generation ships that went on centuries-long trips to other stars and where religion was unknown to the first generation, the ships would arrive full of mummified corpses anyway"

Hmm, I wonder about this. I'm not disagreeing exactly. Religion is a particularly insistent aspect of human culture, I just feel like we're outgrowing the old forms of it slowly but surely (though we're replacing them with things like "wokeness" I suppose).

But still, I guess that religion serves a purpose that I don't see for racism (again, I'm differentiating between hate and bias). I grew yup watching Star Trek as a kid, so I'm hopeful on both fronts.

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