Today I was talking to Alice about her concept of God. She said that she feels the presence of God especially when she is isolated. When she's around people she feels it less. She also said she felt God very closely when she was fasting. People have been feeling spiritual things for 100's of thousands of years. God is what Christians feel. Others have felt different kinds of spirits.
Spirituality evolved as a way for humans to re-purpose some of the feelings they have for parents and friends in a way that made society more powerful and stable. People feel protected by their friends. They feel that they want to please their parents. These instincts are ingrained in humans (and in other social animals also). Through spirituality, this feeling an be redirected to a being, and idol, or god, which is defined through culture and religion. Culture and religions then evolve over time, which reconfigures the effect of the spirituality.
Humans have a powerful logic engine, but there's a problem with run-away logic. Logic in itself does not explain purpose. Religion can add a layer of purpose. Christianity leverages the innate (deeply programmed) feelings of love a person has for father and transfers that to God. Normal humans want to please their parents, so then they will also want to please God if he is cast as the father.
It's ironic that religion has played a critical role in the population-based evolution of humans while many religious people reject the concept of population-based evolution. But, religion is to be believed, and that's when it has the expected effect. If it's analyzed critically, it doesn't necessarily work correctly. That is, it doesn't influence people to take certain actions, such as commiting to doing what they feel that God would want them to do.
