At the BBC, a writer offers an explanation of the Christian practice of Communion, Darwinism-style:
But food-sharing even predates our Homo ancestors, and is currently observed in chimpanzees and bonobos. In fact, one recent paper even documented research of bonobos sharing food with bonobos outside of their own social group. Barbara Fruth, one of the study’s authors, told the digital magazine Sapiens that meal-sharing “must have its roots in our last common ancestor”. Based on the molecular clock, the last common ancestor, or LCA, of humans and Great Apes lived about 19 million years ago.
When I hear the words “This is my Body,” then, my mind immediately launches into a race to the evolutionary starting line, if you will. Brandon Ambrosino, “How and why did religion evolve?” at BBC
Along the way, he discovers that apes are spiritual:
Goodall has observed a similar phenomenon happen during a heavy rain. These observations have led her to conclude that chimpanzees are as spiritual as we are. “They can’t analyse it, they don’t talk about it, they can’t describe what they feel. But you get the feeling that it’s all locked up inside them and the only way they can express it is through this fantastic rhythmic dance.” In addition to the displays that Goodall describes, others have observed various carnivalesque displays, drumming sessions, and various hooting rituals. Brandon Ambrosino, “How and why did religion evolve?” at BBC News
We await the ape version of the Summa Theologica but in the meantime, we will settle for the Westminster Catechism.
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See also: Are apes entering the Stone Age?
and
Imagine a world of religions that naturalism might indeed be able to explain