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Com ha evolucionat Déu?

Un bon article del blog Evoanth explica noves invetigacions sobre l'evolució de la creença en Déu tenint en compte diferents variables com per exemple el número d'individus que formen un grup. Així com més gran és un grup i més necessitat té de cooperar en una societat complexe més "alt" i allunyat seràn les seves creences:

So they went out and gathered data (albeit from other researchers) on 178 different cultures, comparing their source of food, group size, social complexity and type of religious belief. When analysed this information almost exactly matched their predictions. Amongst foragers – who can easily gather enough food with minimal co-operation between individuals – 88% had either no “high” god or a “high” god which did not bestow morals and did not interact with the world. At the other extreme of the scale, ~40% of groups dependent on intensive agriculture had a “high” god who interfered with the world and gave morals to the group.

Similarly the data on group size and type of god also matched their predictions. 95% of groups with <1,000 individuals lacked a “high” god whilst ~43% of groups with >10,000 members did have a moral giving “high” god. Curiously the percentage does not increase further after that. Belief in a “high” god is no more prevalent in a group with >100,000 members than it is in a group with 10,000 – 99,999 members. This suggests that the threshold at which a “high” god is needed to maintain co-operation is between 10,000 – 99,999 members.

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New research shows that belief in such “high” gods is fostered in more complex societies where it promotes the co-operation needed for them to flourish. Large societies, economically complex ones and those dependent upon resources which require significant group effort to manage (such as agriculture) all fit the bill of circumstances that can foster belief in such a deity(s). Given how the Neolithic Revolution included increase population size, increased economic complexity and the advent of agriculture it seems that this explanation provides a pretty definitive reason for why the Neolithic Revolution also included a “Religious Revolution.”

Fuller J, Grandjean B (2001). Economy and Religion in the Neolithic Revolution: Material Surplus and the Proto-Religious Ethic Cross-Cultural Research, 35 (4), 370-399 DOI: 10.1177/106939710103500402

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