Religion is a feature of cultural evolution that, among other things, addresses anxieties created by cultural evolution; it helps keep social change safe from itself.
Interpretation
Religion serves to manage the anxieties that arise from changes in culture and society.
In this quote, Robert Wright explains that religion is a product of cultural evolution, designed to address the uncertainties and anxieties that social changes can bring. By providing a framework for understanding and coping with these changes, religion plays a critical role in ensuring that the transitions in society remain stable and constructive rather than chaotic and destructive.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of religion in society, one might quote this to illustrate its function in managing social change.
Think of it : zillions and zillions of organisms running around, each under the hypnotic spell of a single truth, all these truths identical, and all logically incompatible with one another : 'My hereditary material is the most important material on earth; its survival justifies your frustration, pain, even death'. And you are one of those organisms, living your life in the thrall of a logical absurdity.
Understanding the often unconscious nature of genetic control is the first step toward understanding that—in many realms, not just sex—we’re all puppets, and our best hope for even partial liberation is to try to decipher the logic of the puppeteer.
...human beings are a species splendid in their array of moral equipment, tragic in their propensity to misuse it, and pathetic in their ignorance of the misuse.
I take it that 'gentleman' is a term that only describes a person in his relation to others; but when we speak of him as 'a man,' we consider him not merely with regard to his fellow-men, but in relation to himself,--to life--to time--to eternity.
The native must realize that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.
Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men.
Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.
No. You can't work your way into heaven. Anytime you try and justify yourself with works, you disqualify yourself with works. What I do here, every day, for the rest of my life, is only my way of saying, 'Lord, regardless of what eternity holds for me, let me give something back to you. I know it doesn't even no scorecard. But let me make something of my life before I go.. and then, Lord, I'm at your mercy.
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