Religion dominates communal conflict because it offers the broadest external support

Evidence

Religious tendencies contribute to intolerance and violence in at least three ways. The first one involves the workings of supernatural monitoring as a group-building social device. This leads to a sliding scale of distrust toward those who fall outside of one’s own supernatural jurisdiction. Second is the social bonding power of religious participation and ritual that could exacerbate conflict between groups. Third, religion fosters sacred values, making them immune to trade-off, which in turn blocks compromise in conflict situations. Interestingly, within all three pathways to conflict, there is fluidity. There is, seemingly paradoxically, the potential for religion to reduce conflict as much as to create it. Religion appears to be both a maker and an unmaker of conflict. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 523 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Secular institutions achieved large-scale cooperation by usurping religion’s community-building role; Prosocial religions produce large-scale cooperation and then spread culturally — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 56; Religious participation, not belief, drives support for intergroup conflict (+16 more)

Broader Connections

• Religion drives conflict through three fluid pathways that also allow it to reduce conflict #complicates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 523
• Religion bundles separable traits whose conflict roles must be disaggregated #complicates (0.76)
• Secular institutions achieved large-scale cooperation by usurping religion’s community-building role #complicates (0.72)