From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 20:30:15 MDT
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/13/1055220770337.html
Scientists find a way for religion to exist even if humanity didn't
By Deborah Smith, Science Writer
June 14 2003
If the tape of life on Earth was replayed, humans might not evolve again. But it's highly likely some other kind of introspective bipedal creature with binocular vision would eventually roam the planet.
So says Paul Rainey, of the University of Auckland, who creates re-runs of evolution using mini-worlds of identical bacteria.
Under similar conditions, he finds the microbe clones he starts with in each "replay" invariably evolve into the same two new types of bacteria, dubbed "wrinkly" and "fuzzy" spreaders.
There are many different genetic pathways, however, that lead the microbes to the same result, Professor Rainey has found.
His team has also watched re-runs of mini-worlds of bacteria that have had the genes that make them wrinkly spreaders removed.
The research is part of mounting evidence that although evolution is based on random mutations, some outcomes - like having eyes or even being a wrinkly bacterium - are more likely than others in our world.
"There are certain designs that work better than others," Professor Rainey told the Herald. "And some designs are so good that when they arise they become prominent because the individual expressing this trait has a high probability of being successful and having more offspring."
He says the research suggests evolution may be predictable in future, with scientists forecasting how organisms will adapt to their surroundings. The complexity of some of nature's best designs, like eyes, can be mistaken for evidence of a designer. But there is no "hand of God", at work, says Professor Rainey.
However, if the walking, thinking, seeing creature he envisages in a replay of the tape of life evolves a big enough brain it would probably invent religion.
That's the view of Robin Dunbar, of the University of Liverpool, writing in the latest New Scientist magazine on the five big unsolved questions of evolution.
Professor Dunbar says religion is a survival advantage to creatures living in altruistic societies like ours, because the threat of divine punishment carries more weight for believers than earthly policing or appeals to decency.
"Gods are created by big brains to prevent free riders benefiting from co-operative society without paying the costs," he writes.
Religion can also be seen in a more positive light, a way of making people feel part of a group.
"It's surely no coincidence that most religions involve practices such as flagellation or long periods spent singing or dancing, which trigger a flood of endorphins, whose opiate-like effects make us feel relaxed and at peace with those we share the experience with," he writes.
Apart from the role of God and the predictability of evolution, the magazine says the main unsolved questions of evolution include how life first evolved on Earth in such a hostile environment, how mutations lead to evolution and how new species are formed.
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