[everdrive]

>Evolution can work on any time scale, including instantly. Look no further than a large asteroid turning into a meteorite, it is evolution done in hours, where everything larger than a cat dies.

A large asteroid will not make me grow a new sensory organ, it will simply kill me. Not all genetic changes take an equivalent amount of time, or are equally feasible.

- Growing taller or shorter can happen rapidly because genes for these traits already exist and must simply be selected from the environment.

- Moving away from a bifurcated body plan is probably impossible, as it is too fundamental to many other systems in the body.

Obviously there's a wide area in between those two examples, but we're discussing whether or not certain traits that people have are 1) genetic in origin, and 2) liable to drift much over time.

Given that religion has been a constant for all known human history (and pre-history, depending on how you interpret artifacts) I would suggest that it's likely to be strongly wrapped up in the same things which build human psychology and human social structure. I want to admit here this is just my view on the topic, and I'm not suggesting that this established scientific fact. In any case, I'm a firm believer in the argument that many who identify as "liberal" and definitely-not-Christian nonetheless have many beliefs which could otherwise be categorized as religious. I want to make it clear I'm not attacking or praising these beliefs, but simply suggesting that parts of the mind which lead people toward religion are a bit more fundamental to humanity, and are not something such as hair color which can be easily or capriciously changed.