Evolution of religion

  I've started to wonder whether Darwin's theory of evolution can apply to religious practice as well.  Is the way that religions evolve over time similar to the way organisms evolve over time?

  An important thing to consider is to whether or not this evolution is Darwinian (where evolution is basically random and has no long-term goal) or Lamarckian (where there is in fact a long-term goal).
  
  We can start with the three Abrahamic religions.  Starting with a primitive proto-Judaism somewhere in the Fertile Crescent which is now extinct, biblical Judaism emerged.  It evolves over time to handle cultural and environmental changes (conquest of the Jewish "organisms" by competitors such as Assyria, destruction of the temple, and so forth) and in doing so creates several daughter religion "species".  Many of these die out (the Essenes, for instance).  Some spread (Christianity, for instance).

  At what point does a religion become a completely different "species" from its parent?  We can use the same criterion evolution uses: it is no longer possible for members of the two religions to "breed" and produce viable offspring.  Now consider the fact that interfaith marriages very often produce children who are not religious -- effectively infertile in terms of religion.  What's more, religious communities often have prohibitions against intermarriage, which will also encourage speciation.

  With this in mind, Christianity quickly reached the point where it is no longer the same species as Judaism.  Once intermarriage between the two faiths petered out, they started evolving completely independently.  Catholicism as we know it now is nothing like Judaism.

  Let's look at several things which cause evolutionary change according to Darwin and see if they apply to religion.

  1. Survival of the fittest.  Those are healthiest survive.  The religious equivalent for this are the orthodox minorities who maintain their traditions as is and pass them on to the next generation.  A tradition which lets other cultures interfere with this process could be considered
unfit in this regard as its rituals and customs may be diluted.

  2. Changes in the environment cause changes in a species, most of which are negative but some of which are positive.   This also makes sense.  When the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jews could no longer sacrifice animals at the
central altar there.  They had to devise other means to communicate with God.  Those who did -- using prayer for instance -- prospered.  Those who did not may have assimilated and therefore served as a dead end for that species.  Similarly, changes in the intellectual environment around the time of the Renaissance may have been instrumental in getting Luther's movement off the ground.

  3. The more offspring, the better.  So some get eaten by animals, diseases, and so forth.  As 
long as enough survive, the religion makes it to the next generation.  It's an interesting coincidence that many religions frown on birth control.

  4. Ensuring that your offspring make it to breeding age is crucial.  In a religious context, that means training them in the tradition at a very young age.  However, more importantly, a culture has to make sure that competitors/predators don't destroy it.  This can be done in several ways taken right out of nature: camouflage (think of the Marranos), aggression (proselytizing), making yourself seem nonthreatening (adopt some but not all of the cultures that surround you so you will be 
accepted and will not stand out), being very protective of your offspring (in this case, don't expose them to new cultures too early), and so forth.

  5. Mutation -- random changes affecting an organism.  Someone thinks of a new idea and tries to spread it.  In some cases (in fact most cases) 
the mutant organism does not survive: his faith peters out and his worshipers desert him).  In others, the mutation finds a niche and prospers.  Remember that all changes, successes and failures, begin with one man: Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, Akhenaton...  

  6. Crossover.  For those unfamiliar with crossover, crossover occurs when the offspring of two
parents gets a combination of genes of which both parent had just one half.  If both halves are required in order to create a successful change in the lifeform, this change has been acquired via crossover.  The most common examples of crossover would be the children of coreligionists from different cultural backgrounds (an Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jew, a Protestant and a Catholic) which are close enough to produce "viable offspring" yet far enough to have a distinct difference between the two.  If the child is able to create a new theology or belief system based on the sum of the parents, that's good.  In theory, intermarriage would be a VERY good form of crossover.  However, odds are that even if the child grew up with a well-defined religious culture, his or her culture may not be recognized by the parents.  This would force him to either in effect start his own religious species or get very lucky.

  7. All viable descendants of a religious belief are equally valid.  After all, in the animal kingdom, who cares if 
two fish from the same species have different colors?  You don't see blue fish fighting with red
fish from the same species that much.  The same can be argued for human skin tone.

  8. Punctuated evolution.  In some cases, problems and changes can appear out of nowhere which can render the dominant organism extinct/obsolete and allow lesser organisms to take over.  Dinosaurs were useful until an asteroid hit the Yucatan.   Right now, Christianity is the dominant religion with Islam a close second.  Monotheists seem to dominate.  However, it is interesting to note that many of the Native American religions -- and some of the Eastern religions -- focus on self-introspection and harmony with nature.  The harmony with nature is the key here.  Right now, Western society has a bit of a problem in that it does not live in harmony with nature.  We are now going through a period of greenhouse warming.  Could it be that there will be an sudden extinction of the non-harmonious religions in a few hundred years and the harmonious religions will take over?  I am reminded a lot of
the dinosaurs fighting among each other and leaving the small mammals alone until the extinction took place.  How much of the world's conflict is between Jews, Muslims, and Christians?  The point is -- events can come out of nowhere (such as the greenhouse issues) which can totally change things.