The cognitive bias of cherrypicking is everywhere. That is why we must always seek falsification not justification.
Our biological need is to create regularity in order to limit demands on our individual and group neural (cognitive) economy. The most scientific method of doing so is self authoring. we can self author by the disciplined construction of virtues, by imitation of archetypes, or by submission to the pack and authority. We do not comprehend this as ‘self authoring’ – discipline of the intuition just as we discipline our bodies and reason through training – but it is as necessary if not the most necessary of the three. In practice only ‘repetitive rituals’ matter. The question is only how we perform those rituals, and what we program ourselves to do by performing those rituals, and the externalities caused by that programming (self authoring). We can program ourselves (virtues), or we can insulate our selves (buddhism, ritualism), or we can take programming from our kin (familialism) or we can take programming from authoritarian submission (prayer and community prayer). We can produce training to defeat nature (west), to live in harmony with nature (east), to an ideal (india), and to abandon reality (semitic). When augmented by festival (feast), sport, and civic ritual, we build training in trust of one another – the ritual of running with the pack is still in our genes. Piety and all synonyms are just submission to the pack. The more competitive the rituals the more militial. The more submissive the rituals the more slaves.
China is the most durable civilization, our only substantial competitor, and not in any way like the semitic. Heterogeneity creates demand for authority. Homogeneity not. It was semitic heterogeneity, and east asian and western homogeneity that prevented demand. Just as today, the religion of postmodernism is a result of demand due to heterogeneity. In fact, they have and continue to ridicule us over our superstitions.
We have a fairly good understanding of the evolution of authoritarian religion in response to demand for cooperation among peoples with demographically disadvantaged populations. Just as we have a fairly good understanding of the creation of familialism (emperor, king, ancestor) ‘worship’ (thanks, respect) in homogeneous societies.
The dumber your people the greater your heterogeneity (number of signal competitors) the greater demand for authority.
That authority will come in the form of propaganda (religion) and violence (the state), and not civil society and rule of traditional common law of property (tort).
Choose: Kin (homogenous high), corporation (expansionary middle ), authoritarian religion (exhausted low).
Human capital determines everything