Evolutionary Origins of Religion
The Shift Within: How We End Oppression and Divisiveness to Create Liberation and Indivisibility for All
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Figure: A concentric circles diagram of an example of the evolution, interconnectedness, and interdependence of power-over social systems.
Evolutionary Origins of Religion
The study of the evolutionary origins of religions and religious behaviors involves various fields of research, such as evolutionary psychology, the origins of language, mythology, and cross-cultural comparisons of the anthropology of religion.
Linguists, psychologists, archeologists, anthropologists, and paleontologists all contribute to this area of study. Experts agree that humans have had a natural inclination toward religious behavior since early in our evolutionary history. However, there is still debate over the precise mechanisms that led to the development of religious beliefs and behaviors. Two schools of thought exist: one argues that religion evolved as an adaptation through natural selection, while the other suggests that religious beliefs and behaviors emerged as by-products of other adaptive traits.
Many scholars believe that religion has adaptive value as a means of promoting social solidarity and increasing cooperation within groups. This, in turn, can enhance an individual's chances of survival and reproduction. Stephen Jay Gould, a prominent paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, science historian, and former Harvard professor, described religion as an exaptation, a trait whose function has shifted during evolution. He suggested that religion may have emerged as a solution to the problem of human consciousness and our awareness of personal mortality.
Other researchers have proposed specific psychological processes that may have been co-opted for religious beliefs and behaviors, including the ability to infer the presence of harmful entities, the ability to create causal narratives for natural events, and the ability to recognize the beliefs and intentions of others. These adaptations allow humans to explain observations that would otherwise be inexplicable, such as thunder, lightning, and the complexity of life. (2)
Scientific research of modern-day hunter-gatherers, people who have never been touched by colonization and who live in remote parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands... provides evidence that humans began practicing spiritual rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs 100’s of thousands of years before Religion evolved.
A 2016 study on the evolution of religion found in The Journal of Human Nature examined 33 Hunter Gatherer societies around the world. The researchers found that the oldest trait of religion, shared by the most recent common ancestor of present-day hunter-gatherers, was animism. Animism is the belief that all things...plants, land, animals, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena...have a distinct spiritual essence.
The results of this study also suggest that belief in an afterlife, shamanism, and ancestor worship evolve as an integrated system of beliefs and practices. The study also notes that belief in either ancestral spirits or creator deities who remain active in human affairs was not present in ancestral hunter-gatherer societies. This is reflective of deeply rooted beliefs in egalitarianism amongst hunter-gatherer societies, where high gods would appear to be rulers.
This same study notes that societies that went on to develop a belief in an omniscient and potentially morally punishing male creator did so as a reflection of its social and political structures.
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I have always wondered why humans are so inclined to be religious. This was really interesting!