The evolution of activists images of god(s) and communality of rites

Prof. dr. W.C. Ultee

Results 2006

This project contributed to the aims of the NWO program Evolution and Behaviour in the following three manners: Insight in the evolutionary basis of human behaviour. The aim of this project is to provide evolutionary answers to questions about the relationship of human beings to their god(s) indifferent stages of technological development. In explaining religious diversity we make use of Lenski’s ecological evolutionism. This macro-theory considers religion as a by product of technological advancement. According to this theory, subsistence technology is the most important force driving evolutionary processes in human societies, with advances in their technology contributing to reproductive success. These technological adaptations also are a precondition for changes in the structure and culture of societies, without these changes affecting societal reproductive success. For this reason, religions -cultural phenomena- are expected to be line with the technological characteristics of societies. To explain the relationship between a society’s subsistence technology and religious beliefs on an individual level, we bring in the micro-hypothesis that people make sense of the world and reason to that effect by analogy, with metaphors differing to a larger or smaller extent from one level of subsistence technology to another. Stimulate the application of the evolutionary approach in the social sciences. In the first and third year of the study sociology in Nijmegen, we give a lecture about Lenski’s ecological evolutionism. In these lectures we mention this project and discuss the research findings. Promote cooperation between researchers from the life sciences and researchers from the social sciences. This project is rooted in the social sciences, especially in sociology and anthropology. However, we had some contact with researchers from other sciences, like psychology or biology. We had contact with the biologist David Sloan Wilson. We met him on a symposium in London (October 2005) and on program day of Evolution and Behaviour (December 2005). David Sloan Wilson gave some useful comments on an earlier version of the first paper.

During this project we hope to get a better insight in the evolutionary basis of human behaviour, more specific: their religious beliefs. In the second paper we compared creation myths of societies with different subsistence technologies. In this way we tested the hypothesis that people reason in analogies and demonstrated that the methapors people use to explain the unknown depend on the dominant subsistence technology of their societies. In the first two papers we focused on religious beliefs in preindustrial societies. In the third and fourth paper we will focus on religious beliefs in the modern world. Lenski (1970) stated that some religious ideas, which were perfectly understandable for people in the agrarian societies, appear unfamiliar to people in industrial societies. Ecological evolutionism claims that in modern societies the image of a supreme powerful god no longer corresponds with the idea that people take control of their own life. Because the political power in agrarian societies is more personal than the bureaucratic power in industrial societies, man’s idea of the ultimate power is expected to have changed. We expect that religious beliefs in industrializing societies become more impersonal. Where secularization theory does not define the starting point of secularization, ecological evolutionism gives us a clue. Secularization is more likely in societies where people believe in a moral supreme creator. From this point of view, it seems interesting to distinguish between godly images in industrializing horticultural and industrializing agrarian societies.

Up to now, this project has resulted in the following results, insights and conclusions:

• There is a relation between a society’s dominant subsistence technology and its godly images.The belief in a non-moral supreme creator flourish in the advanced horticulutal societies, whereas the belief in a moral supreme creator is most common in the agrarian and herding societies.
• The relation between a society’s dominant subsistence technology and its godly images is to a large extent mediated by aspects of the economic and political structure. Our data regarding creation myths demonstrates that the three thought models of Topitsch appear fruitful in explaining cultural differences in religious beliefs. We found sufficient support for the assumption that people reason in analogies and that a society’s religion reflects vital and important aspects of a society’s structure and culture.
• Our research findings suggest that evolutionary theories from biology, which are diffusing to psychology, might also be of interest for the social sciences. The research findings can to a certain extent be generalised to a larger population. Murdock’s Cross Cultural Sample is representative for the cultures worldwide that are described by ethnographers.

The research findings are important for the application of evolutionary theories in the social sciences. The research findings show that this approach is fruitful. Furthermore, the research findings are relevant for researchers who work with Lenski’s ecological evolutionism. The findings add to the discussion to what extent changes in a society’s subsistence technology are a cause of further evolutionary processes in human societies. The research findings also contribute to a better understanding and explanation of religous diversity.