Do humans have a faith instinct?

[Griff]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Notice the polls show the most religious people in the US are in rural areas. People that who at least observe nature (other than on the weather channel), and many actually interact with nature. These people know how delicate, how puny, how insignificant, humans really are. These people know, they can use help from any quarter... except the government.

Could it be that the religion you are thinking of is just tribalism? It is much easier to live the tribal us vs. them life in rural areas with people who look, think, and act just like us. I'm reading something right now by a guy trying to sift out from the mysticism a bare-bones no nonsense message about who Jesus was. He seems to be coming to the conclusion that the end of tribalism was his goal, which is pretty ironic as Christianity has played out.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

So many deep explanations. I think it's much simpler... just different schools of thought. What's new is in the third generation of a highly mobile society, we have been moving to be with people who think like us. We have been segregating ourselves according to beliefs. It used to happen at the neighborhood level, now it happens at the urban vs rural or even state vs state level.

That is pretty smart and interesting but don't more people move to find work than a better belief fit?