First, here’s a link to what I’m talking about:
And I just wanted to put this forth as another item in the list of things to show why it is believable that beliefs in worship would come about among all cultures despite the impossibility of proving causality. In the case cited, that there is no causality is a known fact and yet it is easier for the meme to spread than the truth.
Of course. We are pattern-seeking creatures. We are more likely to perceive patterns where there are none than to fail to perceive patterns where they exist, because, in the long run, it’s more conducive to our survival that we have extra patterns as opposed to not enough. Hence, given one time that dancing around a fire with turnips up our butts happens to coincide with a drought-ending rain, we’ll keep plugging ourselves with root vegetables no matter how many times the weather fails to cooperate, and we’ll make up stories to explain why it isn’t working. Thus: religion is born.