i think probably. people today who overcome hardships often credit their strong "faith." if people have hope, they are maybe more likely to persevere and religion often provides that for people. (until they start questioning...)

kim

On Fri, 16 Nov 2001, Craig Tyler wrote:
> I wonder: was there ever a survival advantage for people (or societies)
> who believe in god?
> CT
>
> Eric Weeks wrote:
>
> > Religion: what about the popularity of religions that
> > encourage having offspring, or discourage birth control?
> > Or that encourage converting others? These are fairly powerful
> > ideas with some sort of evolutionary pressure. I recall some
> > clever person quite a while ago invented the idea of "memes",
> > in analogy with genes. Memes are ideas which, as side effects,
> > tend to propagate themselves. For example, I play bridge,
> > and part of the bridge meme is that I go out and teach other
> > people to play bridge. The religion memes are fairly powerful.
> > (Who invented memes? Was it Gould? Marvin Minsky?)