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Comment by heresie-dabord | Hacker News Reader

> I don't think we can expect the religious instinct, found in every known human society, to just disappear.

Religion is not an instinct. Not on the individual level, and not on the societal level, where there is only a manifestation of principles of conformity.

Optimism and sociability are intelligible enough. There is no need to introduce magical properties except to bamboozle the credulous.

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It might be an instinct in the sense that language is an instinct. It just arises in every society even if you start a new one that is free of a common language / a religion.

Perhaps we need a common explanation of what you mean by _instinct_ and _religion_. Many things "arise from society", such as crime and authoritarian power structures. Are crime and authoritarian power structures instincts?

That there are so many examples of mythology and other fables indicates that humans enjoy story telling. What we call _religion_ is just the mythology and fables that we stopped calling _sacred_ when the old power structure collapsed.

The "God Gene" hypothesis is an interesting one. Some think that a single gene may be responsible for a tendency towards faith -- under this hypothesis, religion would be an "instinct" to some, and not others. I'm skeptical of the specifics (e.g. that it's that one gene) but overall, I find the theory intriguing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_gene

"Hamer himself notes that VMAT2 plays at most a minor role in influencing spirituality.[13] Furthermore, Hamer's claim that the VMAT2 gene contributes to spirituality is controversial.[13] Hamer's study has not been published in a peer reviewed journal and a reanalysis of the correlation demonstrates that it is not statistically significant."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesicular_monoamine_transporte...

I think what is much more likely is that there is fervour to conform and social value in appearing to conform. What people _really_ believe is clearly much more pragmatic.

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