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Originally Posted by lendarios  How is that debatable one side or the other? There are no evidence that can be sited to show a direct causation from religion to organized societies, nor there is any that points the other way. |
Early fossil records indicate that ritualized burial was one of humanity's first steps toward separating itself from the animals. Before we harnessed fire, before we invented the wheel, before we fashioned the first spear, we were burying and revering our dead in a ritualistic fashion. We were also carving wooden or stone idols to bury with or among the dead.
Furthermore, the earliest cave paintings were not, as typically suspected, just hunting motifs. They were primitive spiritual depictions of the world. Again, from fossil records and excavations, we've seen that the earliest human settlements were centered around proto-houses of worship. Not the "churches" we think of today, but more like shamanic circles or priest's chambers.
The reason I say it's "debatable" if we'd have ever settled down without spirituality is because we don't know. We
did settle down as spiritual people, and we have plenty of evidence to prove that. But since we'll never know if we could have settled down without spirituality, the matter is "debatable."