Gods

Spirits for Norm Enforcement #

• Mentawai society: Sikameinan water spirit enforces meat sharing norms
  • punishments, illnesses for those who do not follow
    • need to hire expensive shaman to cure problem
    • rituals very common
  • functionally equivalent to a god, but domain is far more limited
    • each spirit has a very specific role

Belief ⇄ Ritual (belief motivates ritual; ritual enforces belief)

World Religions #

Belief, ritual are adaptive #

• stable community
• more prosociality
  • outcompetes other belief systems
  • adaptive radiation via group selection

Group Selection: Cumulative culture increases group success via dual inheritance. Cultures go extinct via conflict, invasion, conversion…

The importance of the supernatural #

• in large, anonymous societies, kin network norm enforcement breaks down
• a supernatural being is needed to police the entire society
  • no escape from omnipotent, moralistic individual

Moralizing High Gods (MHG) #

• exist in successful world religions
• powerful, supreme
• enforce moral codes (supernatural punishment)
• religious revenue: awe of MHG ⇒ prestige-based leadership

Phylogeny: #

• Complexity of societies evolved after moralizing gods in (group selection)
• proto-Austronesian early cultures (group selection)
• MHG’s evolved independently of other societies (group selection)

Ontogeny: #

• gender competitive styles (egalitarian leveling)

Mechanism: #

• language for low-risk competition

Function: #

• food-sharing decreases variance, increases nutrition

Agriculture #

• pre-agricultural gods were all-powerful, but not moral
• Bible used as a user manual for Neolithic
  • lay foundation for patriarchy
  • idea of individual property and inheritance: punishment for stealing
  • how to handle natural disasters (flood, famine…)
  • divine punishment by God for wicked acts

The Free Rider Problem #

• prejudice against atheism on the basis of distrust

• stronger belief in God ⇒ increased distrust

• God enforces social norms

• free-riders have no threat of punishment

  • counteracted by world religions:
    • indoctrination during childhood
    • public adherence to group norms
    • CREDs used to control population behavior

Human: Continue or explain why you are stopping