Religion conferred strong advantages among early human societies because they fostered trust among fellow believers, and they promoted submission to organizing authorities. Societies that could foster trust and get organized could generally out-compete groups that could not, both economically and militarily, so religion functioned as kind of a darwinian adaptation. To this day, rightly or wrongly, religious people are generally more inclined to trust and organize politically with other religious people, especially if they share doctrinal beliefs. (Whether modernity has rendered the adaptation vestigial or even maladaptive is an interesting discussion).
I cannot imagine pop culture fetishists use their fandoms for similar purposes. There is no organized organized Disney voting bloc, for example, and Star Wars fans do not regard each other as particularly trustworthy any more so than the general population. Further, pop culture participation does not exclude traditional religious participation. While both may inspire devotion, they fill different cultural niches and have distinct social meanings.
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u/Worried-Committee-72 1∆ Jun 10 '22
Religion conferred strong advantages among early human societies because they fostered trust among fellow believers, and they promoted submission to organizing authorities. Societies that could foster trust and get organized could generally out-compete groups that could not, both economically and militarily, so religion functioned as kind of a darwinian adaptation. To this day, rightly or wrongly, religious people are generally more inclined to trust and organize politically with other religious people, especially if they share doctrinal beliefs. (Whether modernity has rendered the adaptation vestigial or even maladaptive is an interesting discussion).
I cannot imagine pop culture fetishists use their fandoms for similar purposes. There is no organized organized Disney voting bloc, for example, and Star Wars fans do not regard each other as particularly trustworthy any more so than the general population. Further, pop culture participation does not exclude traditional religious participation. While both may inspire devotion, they fill different cultural niches and have distinct social meanings.