Religion is an evolved device enabling groups to function as adaptive units

Evidence

Groups are acknowledged to evolve into adaptive units, but only if special conditions are met … in human groups it is often religion that provides the special conditions. Religion returns to center stage, not as a theological explanation of purpose or order, but as itself a product of evolution that enables groups to function as adaptive units—at least to a degree. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 455

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Directly feeds the reading of fumi-e as destroying the adaptive-unit function — when the solidarity mechanism is publicly trampled, the adaptive unit dissolves.

Related

• Religion is an evolving family-resemblance package, not a natural kind (similarity 0.83)
• Group expansion drives religion toward moral, demanding, interventionist gods (similarity 0.82)
• Religious rituals were assembled by cultural evolution, not genetic adaptation. (similarity 0.80)
• Religious practices assembled by cultural evolution, not genetic adaptations (similarity 0.80)
• Religious solidarity arises from a cluster of synchrony, self-control, and Big-God mechanisms (similarity 0.79)
• The religious-belief explanation for intergroup violence remains scientifically untested. (similarity 0.79)
• Religious groups expand through higher fertility rates, not just persuasion (similarity 0.78)