Religion/spirituality as Evolutionary Traits -

Let's assume that religion or spirituality ARE actually one of those biological functions that don't help a species, or rather that they harm it. Evolutionarily speaking, any species with a characteristic that does not aid it eventually dies out. We've been around with religion and spirituality for probably around 10,000 years and we're still here. That's a long time to be alive with a "bad evolutionary trait" and you'll never see that occur in nature. In other words, every species you see in the world has developed a way to adapt, we don't see the ones that haven't because they're all dead.

As of yet, no animal has been able to overpower the human species and wipe us out (as we have occasionally done to them), but for sure different groups of humans have tried to wipe out other groups of humans. What I'm saying is that "survival of the fittest" can also apply to human beings. However, more often than not, in times such as those, religion and spirituality have awoken our consciences and have curbed those tendencies. Because of that, you could also make the argument that it's what's keeping us alive, i.e., it's a useful biological function.

Last point, if evolution has the ability to produce attributes that do not benefit the survival of a species then it can't be considered a system. This is interesting because the word "ecosystem" is used to describe it; an entirely random force cannot be responsible for the creation any form of system, which implies some type of order. If it is a system though and has created species that have died out, then it's a flawed system that, and like my computer has led to "permanently lethal errors." The most amazing thing is that the most damaging of the species on earth is still around, and in a manner of speaking, runs the planet. The fact that we're all still here - the planet, animals, humans - testifies to something. What?