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The '''historical origins of religion''' are to be distinguished from their '''] or ] origins.'''<ref>Pals, Daniel L. 1996. Seven Theories of Religion. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508725-9, page 271</ref> The first ] appeared in the course of ] is probably relatively recent (]) and constitutes an aspect of ] most likely coupled with the ].
The origin of religion refers to the emergence of religious behavior during the course of human evolution. When humans first became religious remains unknown. However, there is credible evidence of religious behavior from ] era (300-50]).


The further ] spans ] and the beginning of ] with the first ] ].
==Religion==

{{main|Anthropology of religion|Indigenous religion}}

Though religious behavior varies widely between the world's cultures, religion is a ] found in all human populations. Common elements include:
*a notion of the ], ] or ], usually involving entities like ]s, ]s or ], and practices involving ] and ].
*an aspect of ] and ], almost invariably involving ] and ]
*societal norms of ] ('']'') and ] ('']'')
*a set of ] or sacred ]s or ]


== Primate behavior == == Primate behavior ==
{{see|Chimpanzee spirituality|Paleolithic religion|Sociobiology}} {{see|Chimpanzee spirituality|Paleolithic religion|Sociobiology}}
Scenarios employing ] evidence for the evolutionary development of religion are somewhat controversial.<ref></ref>
Humanity’s closest living relatives are ]s and ]. These primates share a common ancestor with humans who lived four and six million years ago. It is for this reason that chimpanzees and bonobos are viewed as the best available surrogate for this common ancestor. Barbara King argues that while primates are not religious, they do exhibit some traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion. These traits include high intelligence, a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity. <ref></ref><ref name="king">King, Barbara (2007). Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing." ISBN 0385521553.</ref><ref></ref>


Citing a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity, anthropologist Barbara King suggests that humanity’s closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, exhibit traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion in human beings. <ref></ref><ref name="king">King, Barbara (2007). Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing." ISBN 0385521553.</ref><ref></ref>
===Evolution of morality===
:''See also ] and ]''
Dr. de Waal and Barbara King both view human morality as having grown out of primate sociality.
Though morality is a unique human trait, many social animals such as primates, dolphins and whales have been known to exhibit premoral sentiments. According to ], the following characteristics are shared by humans and other social animals, particularly the great apes:
:'' attachment and bonding, cooperation and mutual aid, sympathy and empathy, direct and indirect reciprocity, altruism and reciprocal altruism, conflict resolution and peacemaking, deception and deception detection, community concern and caring ahout what others think about you, and awareness of and response to the social rules of the group''. <ref name="shermer">{{cite book
|title=]
|isbn=0805075208
|last=Shermer
|first=Michael
|authorlink=Michael Shermer
}}</ref>
De Waal contends that all social animals have had to restrain or alter their behavior for group living to be worthwhile. Premoral sentiments evolved in primate societies as a method of restraining individual selfishness and building more cooperative groups. For any social species, the benefits of being part of an altruistic group should outweigh the benefits of individualism. For example, lack of group cohesion could make individuals more vulnerable to attack from outsiders. Being part of group may also improve the chances of finding food. This is evident among animals that ] to take down large or dangerous prey.


Primatologist ] recognizes '']'', which he describes as the nonhuman primate behaviors of empathy, the ability to learn and follow social rules, reciprocity and peacemaking, as a precursor of human morality. Arguing that human morality has two additional levels of sophistication with respect to primate sociality, he suggests only a distant connection between primate sociality and the human practice of religion. To de Wall, religion is a special ingredient of human societies that emerged thousands of years after morality. Commenting for an article in the New York Times he said, “I look at religions as recent additions function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them.” <ref>[
All social animals have hierarchical societies in which each member knows its own place. Social order is maintained by certain rules of expected behavior and dominant group members enforce order through punishment. However, higher order primates also have a sense of reciprocity and fairness. Chimpanzees remember who did them favors and who did them wrong. For example, chimpanzees are more likely to ] with individuals who have previously ] them.<ref></ref>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin Nicholas Wade. ''Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior''. New York Times. March 20, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2008]</ref>
Chimpanzees live fission-fusion groups that average 50 individuals. It is likely that early ancestors of humans lived in groups of similar size. Based on the size of ] hunter gatherer societies, recent paleolithic hominids lived in bands of a few hundred individuals. As community size increased over the course of human evolution, greater enforcement to achieve group cohesion would have been required. Morality may have evolved in these bands of 100 to 200 people as a means of social control, conflict resolution and group solidarity. According to Dr. de Waal, human morality has two extra levels of sophistication that are not found in primate societies. Humans enforce their society’s moral codes much more rigorously with rewards, punishments and reputation building. People also apply a degree of judgment and reason, not seen in the animal kingdom.


Evidence of religious behaviour in pre-''Homo sapiens'' ] is inconclusive.
Religion is thought to have emerged after morality. Religion built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever watchful ancestors, spirits and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.<ref name="supernature">
Intentional ], particularly with ] may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since, as ] suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life."<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|isbn=0674921836| year=1991| authorlink=Philip Lieberman}}</ref> Though disputed, evidence suggests that the ] were the first ] to intentionally bury the dead. Exemplary sites include ] in Iraq, ] in Israel and ] in Croatia. Some scholars, however argue that these bodies may have been disposed of for ] reasons.<ref name="evolving_graves"></ref> Likewise a number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of ] or ] in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread ] Neanderthal ] existed.
{{cite journal
|last=Rossano
|first=Matt
|title=Supernaturalizing Social Life: Religion and the Evolution of Human Cooperation
|year=2007
|url=http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/mrossano/recentpubs/Supernaturalizing.pdf}}
</ref> The adaptive value of religion would have enhanced group survival.<ref></ref>
<ref></ref>


==Anthropology==
==Prehistoric evidence of religion==
{{see also|Paleolithic religion|Prehistoric religion}}


{{main|Anthropology of religion|Indigenous religion}}
===Paleolithic burials===
The earliest evidence of religious thought is based on the ritual treatment of the dead.
Most animals display only a casual interest in the dead of their own species. Humans are therefore unique in their treatment of the dead<ref></ref>. Ritual burial thus represents a significant advancement in human behavior. Ritual burial represent an awareness of life and death and a possible belief in the ]. ] states "burials with ] clearly signify religious practices and concern for the dead that transcends daily life"<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url= http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4 | title=Uniquely Human|isbn=0674921836| year=1991|last=Lieberman| authorlink=Philip Lieberman|}}</ref>.
The earliest evidence for treatment of the dead comes from ] in spain. At this location the bones of 30 individuals believed to be ] have been found in a pit.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7Q3nOqkJQwoC&pg=PA158&dq=archaic+H.+sapiens+burial+symbols&ei=2UeOR-v5FoLusgO8ycDQBQ&sig=lvsc_I14naY4alZ9csYIVkU_pBc#PPA159,M1 |title=How Symbols, Language, and Intelligence Evolved from Early Primates to Modern Human|authorlink=Stanley Greenspan|last=Greenspan|first=Stanley|isbn=0306814498}}</ref>


Though religious behaviour varies widely between the world's cultures, in its widest sense religion is a ] found in all human populations. Common elements include:
] are also contenders for the first ] to intentionally bury the dead. They may have placed corpses into shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. The presence of these ] may indicate an emotional connection with the deceased and possibly a belief in the afterlife. Neanderthal burial sites include ] in Iraq and ] in Croatia and ] in Israel.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.waspress.co.uk/journals/beforefarming/journal_20021/abstracts/papers/20021_04_s.pdf|title=The Neanderthal dead:exploring mortuary variability in Middle Palaeolithic Eurasia|}}</ref><ref name="evolving_graves"/><ref>{{cite web|title=BBC article on the Neanderthals|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21606040|quote=Neanderthals buried their dead, and one burial at Shanidar in Iraq was accompanied by grave goods in the form of plants. All of the plants are used in recent times for medicinal purposes, and it seems likely that the Neanderthals also used them in this way and buried them with their dead for the same reason. Grave goods are an archaeological marker of belief in an afterlife, so Neanderthals may well have had some form of religious belief.|}}</ref><ref name="evolving_graves"></ref>.
*a notion of the ], ] or ], usually involving entities like ]s, ]s or ], and practices involving ] and ].
The earliest known burial of modern humans is from a cave in Israel located at ]. Human remains have been dated to 100,000 years ago. Human skeletons were found stained with ]. A variety of grave goods were found at the burial site. The mandible of a wild boar was found placed in the arms of one of the skeletons<ref name="lieberman2">. </ref>. Philip Lieberman states:
*an aspect of ] and ], almost invariably involving ] and ]
:''Burial rituals incorporating grave goods may have been invented by the anatomically modern hominids who emigrated from Africa to the Middle East 100,000 years ago''.<ref name="lieberman2"/>
*societal norms of ] ('']'') and ] ('']'')
===The use of symbolism===
*a set of ] or sacred ]s or ]
The use of ] is a universal established phenomena.<ref></ref> Evidence of symbolism in the fossil record demonstrates a capacity for abstract thought and imagination. Abstraction is relevant as gods and many other spiritual beings are ] that are often ]. <ref>{{cite web|title=Human Uniqueness and Symbolization|url= http://www.metanexus.net/magazine/tabid/68/id/10167/Default.aspx|quote=This 'coding of the non-visible' through abstract, symbolic thought, enabled also our early human ancestors to argue and hold beliefs in abstract terms. In fact, the concept of God itself follows from the ability to abstract and conceive of 'person' }}</ref>.


The evolution of religion is closely connected with the evolution of the mind and ].<ref name="rossano">{{cite web|title=The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religious Forms|url=http://www.metanexus.net/conference2005/pdf/rossano.pdf|quote=The interplay of religious evolution and mind reveals that even as religion and society evolve, the basic psychological functions of religion remain intact, though expressed in different modes|pages=14. }}</ref> Evidence for ] is often taken as the earliest expression of religious or mythological thought involving an ]. Such practice is not restricted to '']'', but also found among '']'' as least as early as 130,000 years ago. The emergence of religious behaviour is consequently dated to before ] some 150,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of symbolic ritual activity besides burials may be a site in South Africa dated to 70,000 years ago.<ref>{{Citation
Artwork or the use of pigments is seen as evidence of a mind capable of religious thought. There is some evidence of ritual behavior from Middle Stone Age sites in africa such as one site in South Africa dated to 70,000 years ago. <ref>{{Citation
|url=http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/2006_4/Artikler/python_english |url=http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/2006_4/Artikler/python_english
|title=World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago |title=World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago
|publisher=apollon.uio.no |publisher=apollon.uio.no
|accessdate=]}}</ref>
|accessdate=]}}</ref>. Pigments are of little practical use to hunter gatherers, thus evidence of their use is interpreted as symbolic or for ritual purposes. Several ] sites in Africa indicate increased use of pigments, which are thought to relate to ritual activity, dating back as far as 100,000 years ago.<ref name="rossano">
{{cite journal
|last=Rossano
|first=Matt
|title=The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religion
|year=2007
|url=http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/mrossano/recentpubs/EvolOfReligionFinal.pdf}}
</ref>Upper paleolithic cave art provides some of the most credible evidence of religious thought from the paleolithic. Cave paintings at Chauvet depict creatures that are half human and half animal, an example of ] and a phenomenon commonly associated among shamanistic practices.


===The evolution of the brain=== ===Psychology of religion===
The religious mind is one consequence of a brain that is large enough to formulate religious and philosophical ideas. <ref>{{cite book|quote=Religious ideas can be traced to the evolution of brains large enough to make possible the kind of abstract thought necessary to formulate religious and philosophical ideas|authorlink=Paul R. Ehrlich|last=Ehrlich|first=Paul|title=Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect |isbn=155963779X||pages=page 214|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mHFsScY8ewMC&pg=PA214&dq=religious+ideas+large+brains&ei=V-CNR7r8C5vEswPiv5DQBQ&sig=dmTHVOw51Z-bhQrR-yqSb6a07gU}}</ref>. During human evolution, the hominid brain tripled in size , peaking 500,000 years ago.


{{See also|Psychology of religion|Evolutionary psychology of religion|Neurotheology}}
Much of the brain's expansion took place in the ]. This part of the brain is involved in processing higher order cognitive functions that are necessary for human religiosity. The neocortex is responsible for ], language and emotion. According to ], the relative ] of any species correlates with the level of social complexity of the particular species. The neocortex size correlates with a number of social variables that include social group size and complexity of mating behaviors. With chimpanzees the neocortex occupies 50% of the brain, whereas with modern humans it occupies 80% of the brain. ] argues that the critical event in the evolution of the neocortex took place at the speciation of ] about 500]. His study indicates that only after the speciation event is the neocortex sufficiently large enough to process complex social phenomena such as language and religion. The study is based on a regression analysis of neocortex size plotted against a number of social behaviors of living and extinct hominids<ref>{{ cite journal
|url=http://anthropology.tamu.edu/faculty/alvard/ANTH689%20Fall%202005/Week%2011/Dunbar%202003.pdf |title=THE SOCIAL BRAIN: Mind, Language, and Society in Evolutionary Perspective
|last=Dunbar
|first=Robin
|authorlink= Robin Dunbar
|year=2003}}</ref>
-->
===Tool use===
] argues that causal beliefs that emerged from tool use played a major role in the evolution of belief. The manufacture of complex tools requires, firstly, creating a mental image of an object that does not exist naturally before actually making artifact. Furthermore, one must understand how the tool would be used, which requires an understanding of ]<ref name="wolpert">{{ cite book| title=Six impossible things before breakfast, The evolutionary origins of belief|authorlink=Lewis Wolpert|isbn=0393064492|quote=with regard to hafted tools, One would have to understand that the two pieces serve different purposes, and imagine how the tool could be used, }}</ref>Accordingly, the level of sophistication of stone tools is a useful indicator of causal beliefs. <ref name="wolpert2">{{ cite book| title=Six impossible things before breakfast, The evolutionary origins of belief|authorlink=Lewis Wolpert|last=Wolpert|first=Lewis|isbn=0393064492|last=Wolpert|first=Lewis| quote= Belief in cause and effect has had the most enormous effect on human evolution, both physical and cultural. Tool use, with language, has transformed human evolution and let to what we now think of as belief|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HP35qPdfioAC&pg=PA82&dq=%22belief+in+cause+and+effect%22+wolpert&ei=ytqNR5T0FYSOsgO6vun-AQ&sig=KngnWiWpVO-riDuud5aqoJXl6vs|page=page 82}}</ref> Wolpert contends use of tools comprised of more than one component, such as hand axes, represents an ability to understand cause and effect.

==Language and religion==
{{see also|origin of language|myth and religion}}

Religion requires a system of symbolic communication such as language to be transmitted from one individual to another. ] states "human religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base," <ref name="lieberman"/> From this premise science writer Nicholas Wade states:
:"Like most behaviors that are found in societies throughout the world, religion must have been present in the ancestral human population before the dispersal from Africa 50,000 years ago. Although religious rituals usually involve dance and music, they are also very verbal, since the sacred truths have to be stated. If so, religion, at least in its modern form, cannot pre-date the emergence of language. It has been argued earlier that language attained its modern state shortly before the exodus from Africa. If religion had to await the evolution of modern, articulate language, then it too would have emerged shortly before 50,000 years ago. "<ref name="wade">*"] - ''Before The Dawn, Discovering the lost history of our ancestors''. Penguin Books, London, 2006. p. 8 p. 165" ISBN 1594200793</ref>


] is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs and immune systems, ] has functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore evolved by ]. Like organs, this functional structure should be universally shared and should solve important problems of survival. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand cognitive processes by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might serve.


===Psychological processes===
==Neolithic religions==
The cognitive psychology of religion is a new field of inquiry which attempts to account for the psychological processes that underlie religious thought and practice. In his book ''Religion Explained'', ] asserts there is no simple explanation for religious ]. Boyer is concerned with the various psychological processes involved in ideas concerning the gods. Boyer builds on the ideas of cognitive anthropologists ] and ], who first argued that religious cognition represents a by-product of various evolutionary adaptations, including ], and purposeful human constructs about the world (for example, bodiless beings with thoughts and emotions) that make religious cognitions striking and memorable.
{{main|Neolithic religion}}
Following the ] in the Near East, religion took on many of the characteristics typical of modern religions. The shift from a ] lifestyle 13,000 years ago to agriculture led to a worldwide increase in population density. Chiefdoms amd states arose and they allowed for division of labor, both socially and economically. Religions became more formalized and emerged as institutions in their own right. These religious institutions became active in the participation and support of political institutions and often justified the existence of social hierarchies.<ref name="shermer"/>.
===Invention of writing===
Following the neolithic revolution, the pace of technological development intensified culminating in the invention of writing 3500 years ago. Writing is thought to have been first invented in either Sumeria or Ancient Egypt.The first religious texts mark the beginning of ]. The ] from ancient Egypt are one the oldest known religious texts in the world dating to between 3300 to 3150 BCE.<ref>{{cite book|url= http://books.google.com/books?id=SieAmOiyGQMC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=the+pyramid+texts+oldest+religious&source=web&ots=Yu7-qo4G-y&sig=tejE7aU3B864GPWexUzsxYNVhgI | title=An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Literature|first= Wallis|last= Budge|isbn=0486295028|pages=page 9}}</ref>
<ref></ref> It is these factors that led to the development of the ] during the ].


===Cognitive studies===
==Evolutionary psychology of religion==
{{main|Evolutionary psychology of religion}}
There is general agreement among cognitive scientists that religion is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved early in human history. However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary byproduct of other mental adaptations. ], for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a ], in other words that religion evolved as byproduct of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons.<ref name="henig"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="pinker"> ]</ref> There is general agreement among cognitive scientists that religion is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved early in human history. However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary byproduct of other mental adaptations. ], for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a ], in other words that religion evolved as byproduct of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons.<ref name="henig"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="pinker"> ]</ref>
Sch mechanisms may include: the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events (]), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions (]). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, etc.<ref>{{Citation Sch mechanisms may include: the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events (]), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions (]). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, etc.<ref>{{Citation
Line 103: Line 46:
|title=Religion's Evolutionary Landscape ] ]}}</ref> |title=Religion's Evolutionary Landscape ] ]}}</ref>


Religious persons acquire religious ideas and practices through social exposure. The child of a ] ] will not become an evangelical ] without the relevant cultural experience. While mere exposure does not cause a particular religious outlook (a person may have been raised a ] but leave the ]), nevertheless some exposure is required - this person will never invent Roman Catholicism out of thin air. One single person cannot invent a complex religious system like Roman Catholicism. Simpler religions like ] can be invented by one individual. ] may help understanding of the psychological mechanisms for these manifest correlations. To the extent that acquisition and transmission of religious concepts rely on human ], the mechanisms are probably open to computational analysis. If all thought is computationally structured, then such an approach can also shed light on the nature of religious cognition. It is plausible to think that the physico-cognitive brain structures are the result of evolution over long periods of time. Like all biological systems, the mind is continually being optimised to promote survival and reproduction. Under this view all specialised cognitive functions broadly serve those ] ends.


For ] the universal propensity toward religious belief is a genuine scientific puzzle. He thinks that ] explanations for religion do not meet the criteria for adaptations, and that religious psychology is indeed a by-product of many parts of the mind that evolved because they aided survival in other ways.


==Genetics== ==Genetics==
Line 109: Line 54:
Some scholars have suggested that religion is genetically "hardwired" into the human condition. One controversial hypothesis, the ] hypothesis, states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted as religious revelation. One gene claimed to be of this nature is ]. Some scholars have suggested that religion is genetically "hardwired" into the human condition. One controversial hypothesis, the ] hypothesis, states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted as religious revelation. One gene claimed to be of this nature is ].



==Language and religion==
{{see also|origin of language|myth and religion}}
A number of scholars have suggested that the evolution of language was a prerequisite for the origin of religion.<ref name="sverker">{{cite journal
| quotes = | last = Johansson | first = Sverker | year = 2004 | title = Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses
| doi =10.1017/S002222670629409X | url = http://www.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/pro/SverkerJohansson-sem.pdf
| quote = A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). | journal = Journal of Linguistics | volume = 42 | pages = 486
}}</ref>
] states "uman religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base," and that the presence of burial and grave artifacts indicate that early humans had distinctive cognitive abilities different from chimpanzees.<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|isbn=0674921836| year=1991| first=Philip |last=Lieberman|authorlink=Philip Lieberman}}</ref> From this, science writer ] concludes that religious behavior was present in human populations preceding the ] migration some 60,000 years ago.<ref>*"] - ''Before The Dawn, Discovering the lost history of our ancestors''. Penguin Books, London, 2006. p. 8 p. 165" ISBN 1594200793</ref><ref name="sverker">{{cite journal
| quotes = | last = Johansson | first = Sverker | year = 2004 | title = Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses
| doi =10.1017/S002222670629409X | url = http://www.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/pro/SverkerJohansson-sem.pdf
| quote = A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). | journal = Journal of Linguistics | volume = 42 | pages = 486
}}</ref>


==References== ==References==

Revision as of 19:03, 4 July 2008

The historical origins of religion are to be distinguished from their psychological or social origins. The first religious behaviour appeared in the course of human evolution is probably relatively recent (Middle Paleolithic) and constitutes an aspect of behavioral modernity most likely coupled with the appearance of language.

The further development of religion spans Neolithic religion and the beginning of religious history with the first polytheistic religions of the Ancient Near East.

Primate behavior

Further information: Chimpanzee spirituality, Paleolithic religion, and Sociobiology

Scenarios employing primatological evidence for the evolutionary development of religion are somewhat controversial.

Citing a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity, anthropologist Barbara King suggests that humanity’s closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, exhibit traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion in human beings.

Primatologist Dr. Frans de Wall recognizes primate sociality, which he describes as the nonhuman primate behaviors of empathy, the ability to learn and follow social rules, reciprocity and peacemaking, as a precursor of human morality. Arguing that human morality has two additional levels of sophistication with respect to primate sociality, he suggests only a distant connection between primate sociality and the human practice of religion. To de Wall, religion is a special ingredient of human societies that emerged thousands of years after morality. Commenting for an article in the New York Times he said, “I look at religions as recent additions function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them.”

Evidence of religious behaviour in pre-Homo sapiens early humans is inconclusive. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since, as Philip Lieberman suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life." Though disputed, evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first hominids to intentionally bury the dead. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Some scholars, however argue that these bodies may have been disposed of for secular reasons. Likewise a number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal bear cult existed.

Anthropology

Main articles: Anthropology of religion and Indigenous religion

Though religious behaviour varies widely between the world's cultures, in its widest sense religion is a cultural universal found in all human populations. Common elements include:

The evolution of religion is closely connected with the evolution of the mind and behavioral modernity. Evidence for paleolithic burials is often taken as the earliest expression of religious or mythological thought involving an afterlife. Such practice is not restricted to Homo sapiens, but also found among Homo neanderthalensis as least as early as 130,000 years ago. The emergence of religious behaviour is consequently dated to before separation of early Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of symbolic ritual activity besides burials may be a site in South Africa dated to 70,000 years ago.

Psychology of religion

See also: Psychology of religion, Evolutionary psychology of religion, and Neurotheology

Evolutionary psychology is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs and immune systems, cognition has functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore evolved by natural selection. Like organs, this functional structure should be universally shared and should solve important problems of survival. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand cognitive processes by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might serve.

Psychological processes

The cognitive psychology of religion is a new field of inquiry which attempts to account for the psychological processes that underlie religious thought and practice. In his book Religion Explained, Pascal Boyer asserts there is no simple explanation for religious consciousness. Boyer is concerned with the various psychological processes involved in ideas concerning the gods. Boyer builds on the ideas of cognitive anthropologists Dan Sperber and Scott Atran, who first argued that religious cognition represents a by-product of various evolutionary adaptations, including folk psychology, and purposeful human constructs about the world (for example, bodiless beings with thoughts and emotions) that make religious cognitions striking and memorable.

Cognitive studies

There is general agreement among cognitive scientists that religion is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved early in human history. However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary byproduct of other mental adaptations. Stephen Jay Gould, for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a Spandrel, in other words that religion evolved as byproduct of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons. Sch mechanisms may include: the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events (aitiology), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions (theory of mind). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, etc.

Religious persons acquire religious ideas and practices through social exposure. The child of a Zen Buddhist will not become an evangelical Christian without the relevant cultural experience. While mere exposure does not cause a particular religious outlook (a person may have been raised a Roman Catholic but leave the church), nevertheless some exposure is required - this person will never invent Roman Catholicism out of thin air. One single person cannot invent a complex religious system like Roman Catholicism. Simpler religions like Scientology can be invented by one individual. Cognitive science may help understanding of the psychological mechanisms for these manifest correlations. To the extent that acquisition and transmission of religious concepts rely on human brains, the mechanisms are probably open to computational analysis. If all thought is computationally structured, then such an approach can also shed light on the nature of religious cognition. It is plausible to think that the physico-cognitive brain structures are the result of evolution over long periods of time. Like all biological systems, the mind is continually being optimised to promote survival and reproduction. Under this view all specialised cognitive functions broadly serve those reproductive ends.

For Steven Pinker the universal propensity toward religious belief is a genuine scientific puzzle. He thinks that adaptationist explanations for religion do not meet the criteria for adaptations, and that religious psychology is indeed a by-product of many parts of the mind that evolved because they aided survival in other ways.

Genetics

Further information: God gene

Some scholars have suggested that religion is genetically "hardwired" into the human condition. One controversial hypothesis, the God gene hypothesis, states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted as religious revelation. One gene claimed to be of this nature is VMAT2.


Language and religion

See also: origin of language and myth and religion

A number of scholars have suggested that the evolution of language was a prerequisite for the origin of religion. Philip Lieberman states "uman religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base," and that the presence of burial and grave artifacts indicate that early humans had distinctive cognitive abilities different from chimpanzees. From this, science writer Nicholas Wade concludes that religious behavior was present in human populations preceding the out of Africa migration some 60,000 years ago.

References

  1. Pals, Daniel L. 1996. Seven Theories of Religion. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508725-9, page 271
  2. Matthew Rutherford. The Evolution of Morality. University of Glasgow. 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2008
  3. Gods and Gorillas
  4. King, Barbara (2007). Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing." ISBN 0385521553.
  5. Excerpted from Evolving God by Barbara J. King
  6. [ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin Nicholas Wade. Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior. New York Times. March 20, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2008]
  7. ^ Uniquely Human. 1991. ISBN 0674921836. Cite error: The named reference "lieberman" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  8. Evolving in their graves: early burials hold clues to human origins - research of burial rituals of Neanderthals
  9. "The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religious Forms" (PDF). p. 14. The interplay of religious evolution and mind reveals that even as religion and society evolve, the basic psychological functions of religion remain intact, though expressed in different modes
  10. World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago, apollon.uio.no, retrieved 2007-12-22 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  11. A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God
  12. Toward an evolutionary psychology of religion and personality
  13. The evolutionary psychology of religion Steven Pinker
  14. Religion's Evolutionary Landscape [[Scott Atran]] [[Ara Norenzayan]] {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  15. ^ Johansson, Sverker (2004). "Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses" (PDF). Journal of Linguistics. 42: 486. doi:10.1017/S002222670629409X. A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |quotes= (help)
  16. *"Wade, Nicholas - Before The Dawn, Discovering the lost history of our ancestors. Penguin Books, London, 2006. p. 8 p. 165" ISBN 1594200793

Literature

  • Churchward, Albert. (1924) The Origin and Evolution of Religion (2003 reprint: ISBN 978-1930097506).
  • Cooke, George Willis. (1920) The Social Evolution of Religion.
  • Hefner, Philip. (1993) The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Hopkins, E. Washburn. (1923) Origin and Evolution of Religion
  • King, Barbara. (2007) Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 0385521553.
  • Lewis-Williams, David (2002) The mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art. Thames & Hudson, ISBN: 0500051178
  • Mithen, Steve. (1996) The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05081-3.
  • McClenon, James (2002), Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion, Northern Illinois University Press, ISBN 0875802842 {Reviewed here by Journal of Religion & Society)
  • Parchment, S. R. (2005) "Religion And Its Effect Upon Human Evolution", in: Just Law of Compensation ISBN 1564596796.
  • Reichardt, E. Noel. (1942) Significance of Ancient Religions in Relation to Human Evolution and Brain Development
  • Wade, Nicholas. (2006) Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. The Penguin Press ISBN 1-59420-079-3.
  • Alfred North Whitehead (1926) Religion in the Making. 1974, New American Library. 1996, with introduction by Judith A. Jones, Fordham Univ. Press.
  • Wolpert, Lewis. (2007) Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief. New York:W.W. Norton.

See also

External links

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