rjstorm wrote:

I've recently become interested in ancient history. It appears that
man has always created something to worship. It has been pagan gods,
man gods, woman gods, wind gods, sun gods, rain gods, war gods, love
gods, crop gods, you name it; we've always had something. Are we
programmed through creation, intelligent creation, evolution, or some
other theory of the day, to worship something, anything?

There was an article about this in _New Scientist_ 28 Jan 2006. Sadly I
seem to have misplaced my copy. (I have the previous and following weeks
filed, but the 28th is missing.) It's online here though:

http://www.newscientist.com/contents/issue/2536.html

You need to be a subscriber to read the full articles, but the gist of
them is that evolution seems to have favoured societies that collectively
worship things -- note "collectively" as that's the important part, not
the worshipping.

In the past, it seems to have helped with tribal bonding in much the same
way that communal grooming does in gorillas. (I assume that because humans
don't have as much body hair, they needed a good substitute for hours of
communal lice-picking.)

There is also supposedly a euphoria factor -- hundreds of tribe members
around a camp fire, singing and dancing.

Also, it increases hostility to people outside your own group, which is
good for the survival of your own genes. Think Lord-of-the-Flies-style mob
mentality: kill the pig, cut her throat, spill her blood, etc.