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“We tend to trust others with whom we share similar values or worldviews. The shared belief in the supernatural world accesible through trance, where one interacts with watchful ancestors and spirits might be a basis upon which trust could be built. If while ritually interacting with beloved ancestors, members of both groups pledge their mutual allegiance, then rivals might become friends and trading partners. Once again, a psychological resource, trust, gives access to the material resources of trade.”

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Book:Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion: Psychological and Ritual Resources
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“Religion is complicated- the emphasis here being on the verb -is-. Religion as we see it today is the product of many millennia of evolutionary history. Neither the Olympian pantheon nor the Roman magisterium was part of religion in our ancestral world. To understand religion as a cultural adaptation, we must understand what it was when it first emerged, and what kind of world it was born into.”

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Book:Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved
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“Religion is paradoxical. It emerged out of intergroup competition, yet it has a remarkable power to unite. It sets people apart from one another, yet can also draw vastly different people together. Long ago we envisioned relationship with spiritual beings. In one sense these relationships were very mundane -they served practical human needs. The practical side of these relationships is also the source of their power to divide us, to pit one group against another. The divine side is in their capacity to quietly but persistently call us to transcend ourselves and find common ground for trust.”

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Book:Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved
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“Human communities -power- themselves with resources. Material resources such as water, fuel, iron ore, wheat stocks, etc., are essential for this. However, psychological resources -knowledge, loyalty, willpower, communal bonds, emotional commitment, etc. - are necessary as well.”

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Book:Ritual in Human Evolution and Religion: Psychological and Ritual Resources
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