Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Matt J. Rossano

Quote by Matt J. Rossano

“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.”

Quote by Matt J. Rossano

Book:Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved
Create image

Work

Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Matt J. Rossano

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Matt J. Rossano. more

You May Also Like

“We might presume that a social contract should be a lengthy legal document with many provisions and clauses. But the real authority of a social contract does not derive from a piece of parchment, but from a few simple truths that we all abide by, truths that implicitly structure the relationship between individuals and the institutions we create to serve us. At its heart, a social contract defines what we owe one another. Recall the terms of the Standardization Covenant: Society is obligated to reward you with opportunity if and only if you abandon the pursuit of personal fulfillment for the pursuit of standardized excellence. If we want a democratic meritocracy for ourselves and our children, then we must each choose to ratify a new social contract: Society is obligated to provide you with the opportunity to pursue fulfillment, and you are accountable for your own fulfillment. The supreme institutional obligation under the Dark Horse Covenant is to provide Equal Fit. The supreme individual obligation under the Dark Horse Covenant is Personal Accountability.”

ScienceJusticeProgressSocietyEthicsTransformationAppreciationInteractionSystem
Book:Dark Horse: Achieving Success Through the Pursuit of Fulfillment
Create image

“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.”

ReligionPsychologySocietyEvolutionBiasHomo SapiensComunity
Book:Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved
Create image

“Ongoing aggression not only impacts individuals, it also destabilizes social groups and disrupts functional social relationships. The uncertainty, ambiguity, and stress resulting from ongoing aggression and violence may impact the biological fitness of all group members.”

ViolenceSocietyHomo SapiensCriminalityCriminal OrganizationsNarcotrafico
Book:Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Violence
Create image