Fear of A Mean, Angry, Punitive God May Be Responsible for the Rise of Civilization
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The bizarre belief in all-seeing and punitive ‘gods’ may well be a huge factor in how modern civilization came about. At least that is what researchers in the journal Nature report following a lengthy study of nearly 600 people from eight communities, including plant cultivators on the South Pacific island of Tanna, wage laborers on Fiji and in Brazil, herders and wage laborers in Siberia, and East African hunter-gatherers.
Using a behavioral game involving a cup and dice, the researchers found that people were more likely to reward strangers in a distant land over themselves if they thought their actions were being monitored from the ‘big guy’ on high. That proved particularly true if the strangers shared their religious beliefs. The upshot is that these beliefs make people more likely to cooperate with those outside their immediate social circles, and perhaps explains how “far-flung peoples” came together, say the researchers in a press release.
“A large part of the success of human civilizations may have lain in the hands of the gods, whether or not they are real,” writes an evolutionary biologist in Nature.
As Science News explains, this tendency to cooperate with strangers would have had huge implications starting about 10,000 years ago as primitive communities began to have more contact with each other. In the study, the stronger the belief in a punishing god, the greater the likelihood was for rewarding distant strangers, reports ABC Science.
The researchers theorize that this is why Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, all of which include what Science News calls “divine discipline,” have spread so successfully. Their adherents made sure to work with each other. In addition, a look at the Christian bible will no doubt support the theory of an “angry God” because the scriptures are filled with passages that talk about the mean guy from on high.
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So would this mean that as more people become atheists, civilization is doomed? I don’t like the idea that the only reason for being civil is to prevent a mean nasty God from taking vengeance!
Oh for sure. Even if civilization itself isn’t immediately doomed you know those Atheists are 🙂
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/202591683212428906/
“If you need the threat of eternal torture to be a good person, then you’re not a good person.”
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/damnation
Good links. Thanks.