Religion I

This may or may not be the first of many posts on the subject of religion.

Stephen Hawking said the existence of God is extremely unlikely. On the other hand, the possibility of evolution seems pretty unlikely as well. My concern, however, is more with the existence of a benevolent God and not just some senile old dude with a sick sense of humor or the matrix.

Biology tells organisms to take as much as they can now because the natural world is uncertain and scary, and they might not live much longer. The genius of homo sapiens, however, is that cooperation increases the likelihood of survival. This requires that individuals not only take but also give something in return, a concept evolutionary biologists call "reciprocity". The problem with reciprocity is that it requires a measure of "faith": I do something now but may not get anything in return until later. If I am nice to my neighbor, hopefully, in the future, he will be nice back, thus, benefiting both of us. Since pretty much all organized religions are simply various permutations of the Golden Rule (do unto others, etc.), this is a very effective way to foster reciprocity in large populations, which is the foundation of societies.