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The question that usually comes up about Gods is about their existance, not their relationship to human survival. Still, whether gods exists or not, gods are important to human survival and humans are adapted to Gods. So before approaching the questions of God's existence or nature, this discusses some effects of God on human survival without making any assumptions about God's existance.
To understand humans, one must understand the relationship of humans to gods. Gods are an important part of human survival strategies. Gods inspire and sustain. Gods define how cultures compete. They give authority to our leaders. Gods provide many forms of balance. By the way our minds work, we are adapted to gods even in our genes and these adaptations are important. One must understand both the secular and spiritual meaning of Gods, to understand humans and how they can survive.
Remember, the human mind is not all that naturally rational. Cause and effect are things that are learned. We are designed to believe in a human or some conciousness force controlling events and our lives, not natural scientific laws. The human mind is a pattern recognition device and will even create patterns where it cannot find one. This is in the genes. One of the patterns humans create are supernatural forces to explain what is not understood and cannot be controlled. A lot of religion is about keeping those forces happy and not making them angry.
They say that there are no athiests in foxholes. In times of fear and doubt, all but the most skeptical human always reaches out for a comforting thought that has no basis in science.
A belief in God brings a lot of benefits to the believer. It can give them a hope, strength and inspiration. It can minimize fear and stress. It can give a rightousness necessary to win in competition with other people and cultures. It allows them to find more value in things than the world has to offer and to set goals that rise above the common. It can give authority to the moral laws of a religion. It explains things and allows a completeness of memes. Without a God, what does one aspire to. It is a good survival strategy.
Gods can mitigate the dangers of natural human behaviors such as ego. Not only can they set standards of behavior, but there are more subtle things. Consider the description of the advantages of the alpha social system verses the pecking order social system for humans. The Alpha system reduces conflict because it is centered around one person instead of distributed through the society. In many cases, especially if the alpha is smart, there are almost no challenges and consequently almost no conflict. Having God as an alpha works very well. There can be no challenge and conflict is kept minimal. A leader is important in society and an all powerful leader is very good for a society. It is based on not just aggressivesness, but natural patterns of human organization and balance as well.
In many ways, God is an expression of our relatedness. The followers of a God tend to practice a family type of cooperation. Historically, religious leaders have caused societies to combine by announcing that the Gods of the different society are actually the same or are related. This was a function of the Oracle at Delphi.
A primary importance of God to humans comes in the context of the Christian God. This is cross referenced elsewhere. It is love. This whole book is based on human survival strategies based on cooperation. The most cooperative morality currently available is Christian philosophy. That philosophy is based on the teachings of a religion who says it is the primary commandment of their God. This commandment was to love one another. It seems unlikely that a less cooperative survival strategy can take us to the next ecology.
Religion is another thing. It is associated with gods, but is not the same. Religion serves both humans and gods. It has had and has many functions. Very likely, current changes in human ecology will cause religions to lose some functions and add others. Some functions may be entirely new.
God has tended to have such an importance that there is an entire large institution (multi-generational behavior pattern) based around him. This is religion. It has often encompassed the society and the individual. At times, various religious teachings have encompassed every different aspect of an individuals life. Religion has often assumed all the functionality of the government, business and academia. It encompases family law, food laws, family law, sex habits, etc., provides an ongoing moral education to its followers and teaches faith. A primary function of religion has been to track the seasons so as to be able to tell the farmers when to plant crops. Religions have pioneered the development of many human institutions.
Religion has often been the last refuge in the face of lifes uncertainties and trials.
Faith is a genetically based aspect of human behavior related to our most basic survival instinct. It interacts quite powerfully with the meme of God. This has had an overwhelming effect on human existance.
A Bishop, of all people, said that the problem with religion was that it was based on prescidence and authority instead of reason and understanding. Examination suggests that the reason and understanding behind religion can fairly easily be seen, though it seems that the religions miss it or do not value it. Religion is designed primarily to serve people, not a God.
Considering the current multi-mind model used by psychology that is described elsewhere. It is an interesting concept. We can believe more than one thing at a time. Even things that contradict. We believe some things stronger than others, but we believe a lot of different things. Sometimes even too many. Well, take any human and they are most likely going to believe in God in some part of their mind. This can be an inspiration or an annoyance. Many battles have been fought in the mind over that and many different peaces have been achieved. The neurological basis of our relationship with God is an important part of our genes.
Realize that in these terms, God's existance is shown by God's effect on survival. The belief in God is a philosophy usually called religion. It is a way of knowing that is practiced by a lot of people.