Tribal touch

If you ever doubt that we are descended from the same ancestor as apes, think of two scared monkeys hugging each other.
They don't hug because it's going to scare away a predator. They hug because it makes them feel better.

Wolves nuzzle. Elephants hold trunks. All animals touch the tribe.
Touch is an underestimated method of tribal acceptance.

We hold hands. We hug. We nuzzle. We kiss. We lean into each other.
We do a thousand small things every day to speak without words to the other members of our tribe and the tribe undrestands.
It's older than words. It's older than human. It's older than walking upright.
It is the reassurance that we are not alone, that we can count on the protection of the tribe.
Religion offers this same reassurance with supernatural claims and they have been successful because we have tried so hard to be civilised, we have shunned some of our instinctual habits.
We don't need religion.
We need what religion has tried to replace.
We need the tribal touch.