Research shows belief in supernatural punishment, rather than 'big gods' of religion gave rise to complex societies

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers with ties to several different institutions in Australia has published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B refuting claims made by other researchers that the advent of "big gods" characteristic of such religions as Islam and Christianity, were one of the driving forces that led to large civilized societies. In their study, they found that instead, it appears a stronger force was more likely fear of supernatural punishment for those still living.

To better understand how we humans managed to wind up living in civilized communities, the researchers studied 96 Asian Pacific cultures and combined what they found with data from models that attempt to replicate evolutionary biology. Their research, they say, indicates that "big gods" was not a factor in humans building large societies that took advantage of cooperation. The most damming detail, they note, is the fact that religions that have "big gods" did not come into existence until after large human communities had already developed. Instead, they suggest it appears much more likely that it was influence from supernatural beliefs, such as fear that not doing as requested, would result in crop failures or locust invasions, that led to large cooperatives that allowed villages to grow to towns and cities.

The team came to this conclusion by gathering ethnographic information from a variety of sources—the data they collected was based on cultural units and was coded by political degree and degree of Moralizing High Gods (MHG) found in early literature. The data was then analyzed using a variety of sampling and phylogenetic methods. They report that they found 22 instances of high political complexity in the area over the time under study despite a low degree of MHG and instead of prompting the development of political complexity, they found that it instead followed its development. They report also that they found instances of belief in supernatural punishment driving political complexity to be much more common. It appeared to both suppress selfishness and promote cooperation.

Despite their findings, the team suggests that more work needs to be done—the mechanism that drove supernatural beliefs, for example is not well understood, though it was clearly used as a tool by some to manipulate others into cooperating, a necessary factor for the continued existence and growth of communities.

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