Posted: Oct 01, 2019 7:07 am
I wonder (and this is pure uninformed speculation on my part) whether it isn’t misdirected evolved survival behaviour? A bit like seeing ghosts is a misdirected expression of our highly evolved ability to recognise predators from scant visual information.
Consider this: early humans lived in small groups, quite possibly headed up by an Alpha male. For the non-Alpha males, survival would depend on accepting and demonstrating their subjugation to the Alpha male, otherwise he would see them as rivals and kill them or drive them out.
As this mode of living became disused, perhaps the need for subjugation remained. And what better object before which to practice self abasement than the Alpha-est of Alpha males, an angry god who controls daylight, weather, disease and crops? You could see how the constant grovelling and begging for favours would satisfy an ancient and primitive instinct.
Consider this: early humans lived in small groups, quite possibly headed up by an Alpha male. For the non-Alpha males, survival would depend on accepting and demonstrating their subjugation to the Alpha male, otherwise he would see them as rivals and kill them or drive them out.
As this mode of living became disused, perhaps the need for subjugation remained. And what better object before which to practice self abasement than the Alpha-est of Alpha males, an angry god who controls daylight, weather, disease and crops? You could see how the constant grovelling and begging for favours would satisfy an ancient and primitive instinct.