The Origins of Religious Belief

        
Scholars have long recognized that all societies and cultures develop various customs, practices, and rituals that are usually described as religion.  Defining “religion” has  always been a  difficult and controversial task. Jared Diamond provided sixteen definitions from various notables as diverse as Michael Shermer and Karl Marx in his book, The World Until Yesterday.  For example Daniel Dennett defines religion as, “Social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.”  William James described religious experience as “feeling at home in the universe.”

Diamond also identified five components of religion including belief in supernaturalism, shared membership in a social movement, visible and costly proofs of commitment, practical rules for behavior, and the belief that supernatural beings can be induced to intervene in worldly life.  (In this essay I will use “God” to represent any supernatural deity or deities.)  Observing how these five components of religion influenced and benefitted societies in the past provides an excellent way to understand the role of religion in today’s world and in the future.

Reasonable people can disagree on the definition, but the bigger question is, “Why does religion exist at all?”  Evolutionary biologists correctly note that religion is a very costly feature in any society. The expense of building churches, temples, and mosques and providing the support for religious leaders is great.  The argument is that these resources could be invested in other systems such as education, agricultural, industrial, transportation, and military giving atheistic societies a competitive advantage resulting in the decline or elimination of religious societies.  Since this has not happened, religion must provide some evolutionary survival advantage.  Many scholars suggest that religion can be thought of as a sort of "scaffolding" which was useful in certain stages of evolution, but is no longer needed in modern developed societies.  In this sense religion is similar to junk DNA or the human appendix, useful at one time but no longer required.

Michael Shermer, a science historian and a trained experimental psychologist developed the concepts of patternicity and agency to explain the origin of religion.  The human brain is organized to find  meaningful patterns in meaningless background noise.  An example of patternicity was the ability of the Paleolithic hominids to distinguish shadows on the savanna from hungry predators hiding in the tall grass.  Those lacking this ability were removed from the gene pool whereas those with this ability lived long enough to produce offspring with the same ability.

Agency is the human tendency to attribute some cause to everything observed or perceived.  In fact the “law” of first cause is one of the most convincing arguments ever given for the existence of God.  If everything has a cause and you work backwards through all the causes, you will eventually reach the first cause and that will be God.  Even Bertrand Russell, one of the world’s greatest thinkers accepted the argument of first cause earlier in his life.

Jared Diamond  proposed  the following seven functions of religion:  explanation, defusing anxiety, providing comfort, organization and obedience, codes of behavior toward strangers, justifying war, and badges of commitment.  Considering these functions against the backdrop of societies evolving through the stages of bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and modern western states provides a prism for understanding the role religion played in the past and what its future might be.

As recently as ten thousand years ago almost everything our ancestors encountered during their lives was a mystery.  Yet they had a natural tendency to look for a cause for such things as accidents, weather, scarcity of game, births, and deaths.  Michael Shermer calls this agency, attributing a cause for anything that happens.  At some early time the idea of God (or Gods) evolved into the agency of choice.  Over time as human knowledge and education increased the need for Gods as an explanation decreased.  Today, science answers most of the questions  previously answered by God.

Small-scale societies are characterized by high levels of anxiety given the various dangers and hardships they face every day.  This includes threats posed by wild animals or rival tribes, starvation, infectious diseases, and the dangers of birthing.  Religion provided a means of defusing the anxiety caused when people felt like they did not have any control over the situation.  Practicing some ritual or custom was preferable too not doing anything in the face of adversity and uncertainty.  Religion was also useful for providing comfort in times of grief such as the injury, illness, or death of a member of the group.

Modern societies have reduced the anxiety levels associated with starvation, infectious diseases, animal attacks, and threatening neighbors compared to small-scale societies.  Of course, modern societies have not eliminated stress and anxiety.  The question becomes, is religion the only way or the best way to deal with anxiety?

The arrival of the chiefdom societies demonstrates the versatility  of religion.  Chiefs faced increased responsibility for maintaining peace among larger numbers of individuals living in close proximity with others, many who may be strangers.  Religion offered a tool for organizing diverse and unrelated individuals into a cohesive group based on a common core of beliefs and customs.  This provided a way to induce obedience and establish codes of behavior toward strangers within the group based on some shared belief system that previously depended on being related by blood. In the absence of any legal mechanism of enforcement, the concept of a powerful God capable of punishment and reward would have been a very useful tool for chiefs to use to enforce group rules and customs. The idea of  God was also extremely useful to the chief for justifying war. People certain in the knowledge that their beliefs are correct are easily provoked against those with different or opposing dogmas. Blaise Pascal made this point over three-hundred years ago when he said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from  religious conviction.”

Loyalty to the group is very important to survival especially in time of conflict with outside groups. Badges of commitments are a way for members to demonstrate their allegiance to the group or society.  For example emblems and logos are common among sports fans as a way of demonstrating their support for their team.  In more serious matters societies need more convincing ways for group members to display loyalty to their society.  Since religious observations are expensive in terms of time and money, they provide an excellent badge of commitment.  They can include acts such as spending many hours attending religious services, donating a required portion of one’s income, donning some manner of dress, or even making annual religious pilgrimages to some holy site.  Doing these things demonstrates to the group one can be trusted.

Afrol News recently reported (April 13, 2013) that archaeologists have discovered evidence of religious worship in the remote region of Botswana. “Here, our ancestors performed advanced rituals, worshiping the python some 70,000 years ago.”  Obviously, no one knows exactly how religion got started thousands of years ago, but I think based on everything we do know that it could have easily happened as follows:  (The names “Igor” and “Troken” are of my own making.)

Thousands (perhaps as many as 100,000) of years ago there was a small tribe of our ancestors living in a cave.  As with most people they were just trying to survive as best they could.  To this end each day the strongest and most able of the adult men left each day  to hunt.  If the animals moved on they would move and look for another cave.  When lightning struck a tree and started a fire, they realized that it was useful for cooking meat and heating the cave.  There was one fellow, named Troken who lacked hunting skills and was just a hindrance to their hunting activities.  They decided to leave Troken behind to tend the fire and make sure it did not burn out. Troken was very happy to remain in the warm cave with the women and children avoiding the hard labor and dangers of hunting.

After some time, Troken became more proficient as the “keeper of the flame” and to pass his extra time he started experimenting with drawing symbols on the walls of the cave.  To his surprise, the hunters were interested and in awe of his results.  Eventually, Troken convinced the others that his symbols had mystical powers that only he understood and controlled.  On the days when the hunters were successful he would take credit claiming that he was the one who empowered them.  If they returned without any game, he would make up some new symbols.  He even added various grunts and other sounds to invoke his magic.  If someone got sick or injured, he would invoke new chants and symbols to heal them.  If they died, he would blame it on bad or evil symbols.

In a short period of time Troken became the most powerful person in the tribe.  While the others were out in the cold walking for miles hunting, he was in the cave molesting the women and children (sound familiar?) and working on his chants and cave renditions.  At some point, Troken selected one of the young boys as an apprentice to help with the more mundane aspects of his mystical duties.  Troken promised Igor that if anything ever happened to him he would take over. Troken did not believe that this would ever happen, because by now he actually believed in his own powers. 

One day Troken died and Igor took over. Troken’s death had a profound effect on all the tribe members.  To cope with this, Igor expended on Troken’s work and devised an elaborate ritual.  He covered him with grass and sticks and surrounded him by food.  He then had everyone groan out some new sounds as they danced all around.  He eventually hid his body in a deep cave, and informed the others that Troken left on some mysterious journey that they were not to know about. In time Troken became the great god Troken to all the people.

Igor following Troken’s example and took on an understudy and the two of them continued to improve on Troken’s magic.  Igor noticed some time around the middle of year that the days began to become shorter and that a certain time about six months later, they started getting longer again.  He then did a series of paintings on the cave wall depicting the total loss of the sun and resulting darkness.  This terrified the others, so he developed a secret ritual that he would perform at the end of each year to prevent the sun from disappearing.  The effect on the others was beyond his wildest expectations.  From this day on he enjoyed total power and authority.

Igor demanded that his subjects bow and cater to his every whim or desire no matter how bizarre, barbaric, or byzantine.  He took over the entire cave forcing the others to find other refuge.  Subjects were required to bring him the first choice of food, clothing, and trinkets of interest.  Anyone who displeased him in any way was blamed for any misfortunate that might occur and were then killed as a sacrificed to the great god Troken.  Igor and thousands of his successors held total power and domination over all the others.   

Over time various technological developments occurred such as agriculture which allow the tribe to remain in one place.  This resulted in “territory imperative.” Troken had given them exclusive rights to this land.  As other tribes settled in  adjacent areas, physical contacts were made.  Priest Igor learned that these people had a different set of symbols and magic.  He immediately ordered  his warrior to kill them in the name of Troken. Troken was the only true god and these others must be destroyed except for the women and children who were made slaves. Priest Igor was satisfied and remained confident and secure in his growing kingdom.

Today religious belief is diverse and declining. According to Wikipedia,  Christianity is the largest religion commanding 33% of the world’s population followed by Islam (19.6%), Hinduism (13.4%), Chinese folk religions (6.4%), and Buddhism (5.9%).  Less that 1% of the world’s people are Jewish while it estimated that at 20% are nonbelievers.

What is the future of religion?  The seven functions of religion suggest a possibility.  Education, science, and the accumulation of knowledge has replaced religion’s role of explanation for most people in the world.  I think that this trend will continue.  Governments have taken over the role of organization and obedience,  codes of behavior, and justifying war through the institutions of laws, courts, and law enforcement.  Of course this is not as true in countries with theocratic governments.  However, the trend is moving toward democratic societies and if this trend continues, religion will decline further.  Defusing anxiety and providing comfort will remain the only attractive force for religious belief.  Levels of anxiety will always fluctuate with economic conditions, international disputes, and natural disasters.  Birth control has lowered the worldwide birth rates from 22 births per 1,000 people to 19 births per 1,000 people in the years from 2000 to 2012. This has resulted in an increased standard of living and the lowering of anxiety. Increasing  educational opportunities and globalization are also reducing anxiety worldwide.  If all these trends continue, providing comfort may be the last thing that religion has to offer.

Providing comfort especially during times of illness or the death of loved ones has always been a service that religion provided.  However secularism is beginning to compete with religion in giving comfort and could easily take over this function.  Secularists can accelerate the process of removing religion’s last justification by competing on the grounds of morality and ethics.  For example we can replace the “Golden Rule,” which is essentially a self-serving idea of gaining favor by giving favor with the idea that each of us is responsible for the happiness of the people around us. If everyone in the world did just one small “good” deed every day without expecting some reward, what a difference that could make.  It can be a simple act of removing a nail from the road or giving a smile to a stranger.  We can also share with others the beauty of science and knowledge and the joy of discovery.  Above all we need to provide a good education to every child in the world including religious education.  Professor Daniel Dennett has long advocated the teaching of all major religions in schools.  His hypothesis is the more people know about the various religious doctrines, the more likely they will choose rational human secularism.

 Religious belief worldwide is on the decline and with the advancement of science, education, and secularism, religion seems destined for the dust pile of outdated ideas along with Jack in the Beanstalk as relics of mankind’s intellectual infancy.  In the words of Denis Diderot,  “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”       

1.  The World Until Yesterday: What We Can Learn from Traditional Societies? (2012) by  Jared Diamond

2. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (2002) by Michael Shermer

3.  Blog: Why Religion? (August 31, 2012) by Needlefish Chronicles