When you look at, at least, Abrahamic religion, great store is placed on faith. In truth, the object of faith is less important than faith itself. So a pro tennis player might talk themselves into believing that they have a good chance of beating an opponent who is almost certain the beat seven shades of crap out them (metaphorically speaking). Yet, without belief, the lower ranked player won't be able to take advantage of the higher ranked player having a rare off day.Jack D Ripper wrote: ↑October 3rd, 2020, 9:54 pmYes. Surviving and believing what is most reasonable are not at all the same thing. One does not need accurate beliefs about quite a wide range of things for survival. Often, it is easier to survive if one simply goes along with the group one is in, and one avoids looking for the truth about those beliefs which are dearly held by one's society. For example, historically, it has been a dangerous thing to pursue the questioning of the local religion. Of course, anyone who has even the most basic understanding of logic will know, most religions of the world must be false, since they all contradict each other. And, of course, they could all be false. But questioning the local fiction can cause the locals to kill one.
Millions live in poverty, experiencing troubles that boggle the mind, who are sustained by the hope that there will be something better on the other side. Many billions would have experienced comfort at the loss of a loved one, due to belief in the afterlife.
Belief in the afterlife appears to be a counterpart to the survival instinct. I see them as evolutionary snow jobs. A strong survival instinct is naturally selected but it's not logical or reasonable. People, whose lives are truly dreadful, cling on desperately. Logically, why bother? Because we are unconsciously driven by the fact that our predecessors probably wanted to live more than their unsuccessful rivals.
So what does an intelligent species do when confronted with the illogical desperation of their survival instinct? They create a buffer. So, even if you die, it's okay, because you don't really die.
In the face of such powerful emotional forces, logic seemingly has no hope, unless enforced. The state of the US would be a great advertisement for the CCP's command economy, until you look at the fermenting chaos in China's fundamentals, eg. wasting huge amounts of resources building ghost cities.
Without the internet, I expect that the tribal forces battling it out today would have assembled more slowly.