15 Religion HL

15 Religion
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Hajj.
Note:VISITA ALLA MECCA...OA PIÙ GRANDE MIGRAZIONE UMANA

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five days every year,
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walk seven times counterclockwise around the Kaaba
Note:RITO 1

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shave their heads;
Note:RIRO 2

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run back and forth between two hills;

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3...ECCETERA

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What drives these pilgrims is no ordinary biological motive.
Note:MOTIVAZIONE

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Hajj seems like an enormous waste of resources.
Note:A PRIMA VISTA

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most of what people do in the name of God
Note:NN È OPPORTUNISMO...È CHIARO

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there’s a self-serving logic to even the most humble and earnest of religious activities.
Note:EPPURE LA RELIGIONE SERVE...

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THE MYSTERY OF RELIGION
Note:Ttttttttyt

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practices are peculiar, many of them seem downright counterproductive—a waste of precious energy, resources, and even fertility and health.
Note:PARADOSSO DELLA RELIGIONE

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undergoing ritual mutilations like piercing, scarification, self-flagellation, and circumcision.
Note:DARWIN SBIGOTTITO

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martyring themselves in the name of their religions.
Note:Ccccccccc

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In addition to the behaviors, we also have to explain the menagerie of peculiar religious beliefs. A quick tour of the these would include gods, angels, ghosts, demons, talking animals, virgin births, prophecies, possessions, exorcisms, afterlives of all sorts, revelation, reincarnation, transubstantiation, and superaquatic perambulation
Note:ALTRO PUZZLE DELLA RELIGIONE

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DO BELIEFS EXPLAIN BEHAVIORS?
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We believe in God, therefore we go to church.
Note:VERSIONE TRADIZIONALE....BELIF=>BEHAVIOUR

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We’re scared of Hell, therefore we pray.
Note:ALTRO ESEMPIO

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Let’s call this the belief-first model
Note:DEF

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not to be the view held by most anthropologists
Note:ANTROPOLOGI

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our beliefs cause our behaviors in many areas of life
Note:D ALTRONDE

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Debates between prominent theists and atheists, for example, typically focus on the evidence for God or the lack thereof.
Note:TIPICO DIBATTITO...MA ÈDAVVERO IMPORTANTE?

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Implicit in these debates is the assumption that beliefs are the central cause
Note:ASSUNZIONE PROBLEMATICA

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they’re often better modeled as symptoms of the underlying incentives, which are frequently social rather than psychological.
Note:LA CREDENZA

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we worship (and believe) because it helps us as social creatures.
Note:TESI

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religion is strategic,
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not all religions put such a premium on doctrine.
Note:PRIMO INDIZIO DI ATEISMO RELIGUOSO

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Most religions are fairly lax on questions of private belief
Note:Ccccccccccc

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Christianity and Islam are the exception
Note:IN QS SENSO

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Greeks and Romans, were less concerned with doctrinal propositions
Note:ESEMPIO

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Other religions, like Hinduism, Judaism, and Shintoism, are as much ethnicities and cultural traditions as they are sets of beliefs about supernatural entities,

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RELIGIONI ETNICHE E CULTURALI

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Many Jews, for example, consider themselves atheists, and yet continue practicing
Note:CASO ESTREMO

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When Muslims face Mecca to pray, we call it “religion,” but when American schoolchildren face the flag and chant the Pledge of Allegiance, that’s just “patriotism.”
Note:ALTRO INDIZIO: MOLTE ATTIVITÀ NN RELIGIOSE SONO AFFINI ALLA RELIGIONE

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Similarly, it’s hard to observe what’s happening in North Korea without comparing it to a religion;
Note:COMUNISMO

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Other focal points for quasi-religious devotion include brands (like Apple), political ideologies, fraternities and sororities, music subcultures (Deadheads, Juggalos), fitness movements (CrossFit), and of course, sports teams
Note:ALTRI ESEMPI

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thrive even in the absence of supernatural beliefs,
Note:CIÒ CHE RENDE SOSPETTO...LA CREDENZA È SECONDARIA

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we think people can generally intuit what’s good for them, even if they don’t have an analytical understanding of why it’s good for them.
Note:L ATEO DEVE ESSERE UMILE NEL GIUDICARE

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sense for their concrete self-interest,
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whenever adherents feel trapped or oppressed by their religion, as many do, they’re probably right.

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in most times and places, people feel powerfully attracted to religion.
Note:ED ECCO I FATTI

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the vast majority of weekly churchgoers are socially well-adjusted and successful across a broad range of outcomes.
Note:E NN È UN CASO SE

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smoke less,16 donate and volunteer more,17 have more social connections,18 get and stay married more,19 and have more kids.20 They also live longer,21 earn more money,22 experience less depression,23 and report greater happiness and fulfillment in their lives.
Note:I SUCCESSI

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If religions are delusions, then, they seem to be especially useful ones.
Note:CONCLUSIONE

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RELIGIONS AS SOCIAL SYSTEMS
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what kind of social incentives lead us to practice religion? The answer given by most serious scholars of religion is community.
Note:A CHE SERVE LA RELUGIONE?

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“Religion,” says Jonathan Haidt, “is a team sport.”25 “God,” says Émile Durkheim, “is society writ large.”
Note:RIPETIZIONE

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Communities provide benefits to the people living in them;
Note:LA LOGICA DELLA COMUNITA

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many other benefits require individuals to forego their narrow self-interest in the name of cooperation.
Note:Ccccc MA

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cooperation is hard.
Note:IL PROBLEMA

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cheaters
Note:IL NEMICO

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people taking advantage of church services without giving anything back,
Note:ESEMPIO DI CHEATER

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To lock in the benefits of cooperation, then, a community also needs robust mechanisms to keep cheaters at bay.
Note:COSA SERVE?

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in addition to the standard tools for norm enforcement—monitoring, gossip, and punishment—religions have a few extra tricks
Note:EXTRA TRICKS

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social technologies designed to discourage cheating
Note:SUPERNATURAL BELIF

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SACRIFICE, LOYALTY, AND TRUST
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sacrifice is socially attractive.30 Who makes a better ally: someone who’s only looking out for number one or someone who shows loyalty, a willingness to sacrifice for others’ benefit?
Note:IL SACRIFICIO...E L ALEATO IDEALE

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Friends and family make sacrifices for each other all the time.
Note:INFATTI

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solution that religions have struck upon is for members to make ritual sacrifices in the name of the group.
Note:SOLUZIONE RELIGIOSA

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rituals of sacrifice are honest signals whose cost makes them hard to fake. It’s easy to say, “I’m a Muslim,” but to get full credit, you also have to act like a Muslim
Note:PAROLE E GESTI

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Food,
Note:SACRIFICIO ANIMALE

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Money
Note:DECIMA

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Health
Note:FLAGELLAZIONE

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pleasure
Note:CASTITÀ ASTINENZA

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Time
Note:MESSA

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Status
Note:PROSTRAZIONE

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Fertility
Note:CELIBATO

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if the Pope had children, for example, his loyalty would be split between his family and his faith,
Note:ESEMPIO

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Note, however, that a community’s supply of social rewards is limited, so we’re often competing to show more loyalty than others
Note:FANATISMI E SANTITÀ

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sacrifice isn’t a zero-sum game; there are big benefits that accrue to the entire community.
Note:NO ZERO SUM

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ultimately reduces the need to monitor everyone’s behavior.
Note:SE L IMPEGNO È SERIO

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Today, we facilitate trust between strangers using contracts, credit scores, and letters of reference. But before
Note:OGGI E IERI...AGENZIA DI RATING E BUON CREDENTE

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Society can’t trust you unless you put some skin in the game.
Note:RIPETIAMO

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Americans seem unwilling to support an atheist for president.
Note:ANCORA OGGI LA STRATEGIA SI FA SENTIRE

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PROSOCIAL NORMS
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All major world religions understandably condemn theft, violence, and dishonesty, but they also celebrate positive virtues like compassion, forgiveness, and generosity.
Note:NORME PRO SOCIAL

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Charity is one of the main pillars of Islam, for example, while Christians are exhorted to “love thy neighbor”
Note:ESEMPI

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the mechanisms for norm enforcement that we saw in Chapter 3: monitoring and punishment.
Note:ENFORCEMENT IDEALE

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paying “dues” through costly rituals
Note:IL MECCANISMO RELIGIOSO....

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After you’ve paid a lot of dues, made a lot of friends, and accumulated a lot of social capital over the years, the threat of being kicked out of a group becomes especially frightening.
Note:....LA SCOMUNICA

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reduces the need for expensive monitoring.43
Note:EFFETTO BENEFICO COLLATERALE

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religions can be understood, in part, as community-enforced mating strategies.
Note:ALTRE NORME RIGUARDANO SESSO E FAMIGLIA

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early marriage, strict monogamy, and larger families.
Note:MODELLO TRADIZIONALE

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the traditional one functions best in a tight-knit community, since it benefits from strong communal norms.
Note:QUANDO FUNZIONA...TANTI FAMILIARI TANTA FIDUCIA...NESSUNO SCAPOLO PIÙ SICUREZZA

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contraception, abortion, and divorce, along with pre- and extramarital sex.
Note:I NEMICI....INTERFERISCONO SULLA MONOGAMIA E LA FERTILITÀ

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Babies will be born and raised in two-parent households, fathers will have confidence in their paternity, and everyone can spend less energy monitoring and policing their spouses for fidelity.46 High fertility also means everyone will help with child-rearing, and more generally will support and encourage family life (vs., say, careerism).
Note:I VANTAGGI

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RITUALS OF SYNCHRONY
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marching drills. This practice is useful, it turns out, not to prep for actual battle conditions, but to build trust and solidarity among soldiers in a unit.
Note:LA MARCIA DEI MILITARI

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Our species, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, is wired to form social bonds when we move in lockstep with each other.
Note:STUDI IN ABBONDANZA

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IBM used corporate songs to instill a sense of unity among their workers.49 Some companies in Japan still use these practices today.
Note:IBM E GIAPPONESI

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Scott Wiltermuth and Chip Heath demonstrated this synchrony–solidarity effect experimentally.
Note:STUDI

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“people acting in synchrony with others cooperated more
Note:SCOPERTA

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Almost every major religious tradition involves some form of synchronized movement. Hare Krishnas, for example,
Note:ESEMPI

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Christians don’t dance as part of their worship, but early Christians did
Note:ES 2

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congregations even today continue to chant and sing in unison.
Note:TRE

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SERMONS
Note:Ttttttttt

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sermons help promote cooperation within a religious community. Without them, how will people know which values to uphold,
Note:CHIARIMENTO

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When you attend a sermon, you’re doing more than passively acquiring information. You’re also implicitly endorsing the sermon’s message as well as the preacher’s leadership, the value of the community, and the legitimacy of the entire institution.
Note:CONOSCENZA COMUNE....LA RELIGIONE CREA SPAZI PUBBLICI

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The pews aren’t just a place to listen; they’re also a place to see and be seen by fellow churchgoers.
Note:IN SINTESI

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The real benefit, instead, comes from listening together with the entire congregation.
Note:INSIEME

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In other words, sermons generate common knowledge
Note:CONCLUSIONE

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For better or worse, this dynamic works even for controversial norms. If a preacher rails against contraception or homosexuality, for example, you might personally disagree with the message. But unless enough people “boo” the message or speak out against it, the norm will lodge itself in the common consciousness.
Note:PARADOSSO

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BADGES
Note:Tttttttttt

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distinguish insiders from outsiders.
Note:UNA RISORSA...LA DIVISA

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In a small forager band with only a handful of neighboring bands,
Note:LA GRANDE SOCIETÀ

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Thus there’s a role for badges: visible symbols that convey information about group membership.
Note:BADGES

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FYI, I’m Jewish—so we share many of the same norms and values. You can trust me. Also note that I’m endorsing our tribe conspicuously, in public. I’m fully committed to Judaism; it’s an inescapable part of my identity.
Note:COSA DICE AI SUOI CONFRATELLI IL PANETTIERE CON LA KIPPAH

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My actions here reflect not only on me as an individual, but on Jews everywhere. If I behave badly, my Jewish peers are liable to punish me for tarnishing our collective reputation. Knowing this, you can more readily trust that I’ll behave according to accepted Jewish standards of conduct.
Note:COSA DICE AI GENTILI

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badge is similar to a brand. When Nabisco puts its logo on a new product, the consumer is assured of a certain quality,
Note:BRAND

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Christians who swear on the Bible are less likely to perjure themselves,
Note:GIURAMENTO

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SUPERNATURAL BELIEFS
Note:Tttttttttt

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instead of seeing them as mere superstitions,
Note:ORA SAPPIAMO QUANTO UN DIO SIA UTILE

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the value of holding certain beliefs comes not from acting on them, but from convincing others that you believe them.
Note:IL VALORE DELLA CREDENZA

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People who believe they risk punishment for disobeying God are more likely to behave well, relative to nonbelievers.
Note:PRIMO VANTAGGIO COMUNITARIO

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(2) It’s therefore in everyone’s interests to convince others that they believe
Note:DA DOVE VIENE IL BENE

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as we saw in Chapter 5, one of the best ways to convince others of one’s belief is to actually believe it.
Note:INFINE...IL MIGLIOR MODO PER PRODURRE IL BENE

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the more we’ll develop a reputation for doing right at all times, even when other people aren’t watching.
Note:IL BENE PRODOTTO DALLA REPUTAZIONE

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This helps make sense of the belief in moralizing god(s), but leaves us with a great many other supernatural beliefs to explain.
Note:COSA RESYA FUORI

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the exact nature of the Trinity
Note:ESEMPIO

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Perhaps they function as badges—markers of loyalty to one particular religion or branch instead of another.
Note:IPOTESI

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Are you with us or against us? This is why issues of doctrine are especially pronounced when discussing religion across a divide
Note:ESEMPIO

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orthodox beliefs are like the hat and hairstyle requirements we mentioned earlier. They can be entirely arbitrary, as long as they’re consistent and distinctive.
Note:ORTODOSSIA

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Precisely because there are no selfish material reasons to prefer the Giants over the Dodgers, your support of a specific team serves as an excellent signal of loyalty to the local community.
Note:ANALOGIA RELIGIOSA

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It’s unlikely that your home team is objectively better or more entertaining than any other team, but it is your team,
Note:IO

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the craziness of religious beliefs can function as a barometer for how strong the community is—how tightly it’s able to circle around its sacred center, how strongly it rewards members for showing loyalty by suppressing good taste and common sense.
Note:BAROMETRO....LA STRAVAGANZA DEI MORMONI

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To maintain such stigmatizing beliefs in the modern era, in the face of science, the news media, and the Internet, is quite the feat of solidarity.
Note:MORMONI

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These high costs are exactly the point.
Note:THE POINT

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CELIBACY AND MARTYRDOM
Note:Tttttttttttt

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celibacy and martyrdom?
Note:COME SPIEGARLI? NN SONO CERTO ADATTIVI

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social status. Prestige, glory, and the admiration
Note:LA FORZA CHE LI SPIEGA AL MEGLIO

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a sacrifice in one domain (time and energy) in the hope of securing a larger gain in some other domain (trust).
Note:RICORDIAMO LA LOGICA DEL SACRIFICIO

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martyrs and priests as following the same instincts
Note:ISTINTO

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autopilot.
Note:ISTINTO FUORICONTROLLO...DERIVA

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instincts can lead us to bad outcomes.
Note:Ccccccc

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we seek tasty fats and sugars, which were almost always “up” (in health terms) for our ancestors
Note:UN FENOMENO BEN NOTO...ZUCCHERO E OBESI

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In military landscapes, we learn to show bravery, earning ever more respect from our comrades
Note:MILITARI E KAMIKAZE

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Drug addicts seek ever-more-pleasurable highs until they overdose.
Note:DROGATI E OVERDOSE

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in literal mountaineering, risk-taking explorers might search for higher and higher peaks
Note:ALPINISMO E 80000

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we shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the instincts are necessarily maladaptive, or that the people acting on them are hopelessly foolish or deluded. They’re just chasing their highs,
LA DERIVA È CONFORME ALL ADATTAMENTO