Beliefs
and morals
Throughout history, people have been united and divided by their
beliefs and moral codes. To those of religious faith, God or gods
dictate what is right and wrong, provide guidance on how to live and
bring comfort in the face of the inevitability of death. Psychological
research, in contrast, is showing the biological basis and evolu-
tionary roots underlying morality, existential stoicism, altruism and
even the emergence of religion itself. Traditionalists fear that these
avenues of research implicitly endorse a moral relativism which risks
undermining our very humanity. But as Steven Pinker has argued,
“far from debunking morality ... [this research] ... can advance it, by
allowing us to see through the illusions that evolution and culture
have saddled us with and to focus on goals we can share and defend”.
Religion
Across the world and through the ages, human cultures everywhere have
developed religions. This gives the impression that religious belief and
ceremony, like language and music, is an essential part of human nature.
The explanations for why this should be fall largely into two camps.
There are those who believe that religion evolved as an adaptation that
encouraged group cohesion and cooperation. According to this view, the
loyalty and organization of religious cultures would have given them the
edge over godless rivals. The other explanation sees religion not as an
evolutionary adaptation per se, but rather as a side-effect of the way the
human mind has evolved for other, especially social, purposes. By this
reckoning, cognitive adaptations – such as being able to think about the
beliefs and intentions of a person who isn’t physically present – predis-
posed the human mind to religiosity.
Supporting the first view of religion (as an adaptation that fostered
group loyalty) are studies such as the one conducted by Joseph Bulbulia