"Fear is an evolutionary advantage. Without fear, the human race would not have evolved."
Nope. The idea that fear is an evolutionary advantage is a cultural myth not based in any fact. It is a notion that is actually way older than any evolutionary science, so how could evolution have established such a "fact" before it existed?
Here's what the current science has to say about fear:
Fear is mostly the product of the amygdala in the limbic system, one of the oldest structures in the vertebrate brain; the "feeling" portion of the brain. Much older than the frontal lobe where we get our intelligence. So for millions of years, a lot of very simple animals were running basically on fear before higher animals with a capacity to reason evolved.
In simple animals, fear has a very specific function which is "panic." Panic causes an animal to freeze, not fight or flee. Fighting and fleeing are the results of the animal being able to overcome chemical signals from the amygdala, not give into them. The animal rejects fear and chooses to fight or flee. A function of the frontal lobe's reasoning ability.
It is now suggested by evolutionary science that fear was a way in which members of a species could grow stronger by sacrificing its weaker more fearful members to predators who gave into panic while the stronger, smarter members escaped. Fear is therefore not a tool of evolution, but a tool of extinction or population control.
To further this theory, it has been observed under brain scan that an increase in fear signals from the amygdala results in an immediate decrease in activity in the frontal lobe. Therefore, fear actually works against our reasoning brain. Fear makes you stupid. Being stupid is not an evolutionary advantage for the entire species. However, it is an advantage for the stronger members of a cooperative species in terms of becoming the "alpha" members. Fear in a primitive collective could help an alpha control the rest of the tribe and further their own genetic heritage while suppressing others. Our ancestors were not the members of the human species who capitulated, but the ones who dominated. We still see this behavior in lesser primates even though humans have for the most part abandoned this kind of social behavior. Most of us, anyway.
Fear is still used as an excellent tool for controlling the masses by those in charge. So, the idea that fear, a tool which makes sure weaker animals become prey and are dominated by stronger members of their species, is probably not an evolutionary advantage for anyone other than the predators and the oppressors.
Fear is also responsible for things like hatred, racism, bigotry, misogyny, greed, murder, paranoia, self-destructive behavior, addiction, apathy, depression. The kinds of things that are eroding our civilization, not building it up.
It can therefore be properly stated that our civilization is the very fight against fear. Fear is not your friend or ally. Fear is your enemy. How strong you are depends on how much you resist it rather than give into it.
There is also the harmful stress and general mental health issues associated with experiencing too much fear on a constant basis.
