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Religion, Human Evolution, and the Genetic Basis of Religion?
Some writers have proposed that religion may have affected human evolution and that religious beliefs may even have a genetic basis. This is my comment on such proposals.
Religious beliefs may well have been advantageous to us humans in our evolution, but only to the extent that such beliefs have made a positive difference in the reproductive success of members of human groups. The positive difference would be that female members of a group whose members share specific religious beliefs have more children than those in other groups, and/or that more children survive to reproductive age in such groups than in other groups. Whether such positive effects occur is an empirical question and may well differ from group to group depending on their specific religious beliefs. It is well-known that some religions encourage reproduction while others discourage reproduction and promote celibacy.
The effects of religious beliefs on reproductive success can be due to their direct effects on the reproductive behavior of individual members of the group who hold those beliefs, or the effects can be indirect, resulting from group decisions that affect the reproductive behavior and survival of members of the group. Reproduction can be voluntary or coerced, and survival of an individual to reproductive age depends as much on group behavior as it does on individual behavior.
The possible effect of religion on human evolution does not mean, however, that religious beliefs must have a specific rather than a general genetic basis. All human beliefs have some genetic bases, expressed in the structure of our brains as they develop from our conception through our births and our earliest infancy. However, most of our genetically-based beliefs become more specific through further brain development, from what we call “learning”, as a result of life experiences after we are born, including communication through language and art with other people.
The general genetically-based beliefs from which religious beliefs develop may include most importantly our comprehension as infants of our need to depend on, and surrender totally to, more powerful beings (our parents) for our survival — in other words, the vital belief that we as individuals are subject to events beyond our full understanding and ability to control and that we depend on others to help us understand and control those events. Later the general belief in our dependence on powerful beings for our survival may give rise to more specific beliefs about gods (God the Father or the Mother Goddess, for example), active beings whose powers exceed those of our parents or other humans. Or that general belief may give rise to more specific beliefs that do not involve active gods, but rather subtle forces of nature, and that many people would not call “religious”.
