5
WHY DO GODS
AND SPIRITS
MATTER?
"Why do you let some religious doctrine deter-
mine what you may or may not do?" This is a common question
addressed to religious people, generally by skeptics or outsiders. Why
indeed should the existence of some supernatural agents—the ances-
tors or some invisible spirits or a whole pantheon of gods or just a
single one—have consequences for what people are allowed to do?
When we ask such questions we take for granted a particular scenario
about the connections between belief and morality. We assume that
religion provides a certain description of supernatural agents and
their moral demands ("There are five gods! They hate adultery and
will smite the transgressors."). We then imagine that people are con-
vinced, for some reason or other, that the doctrine is actually true. It
follows that they take the moral imperatives to heart, given the pow-
ers of the gods or ancestors to enforce morality. So there seems to be
a simple story here: however fit for treason, stratagems and spoils,
human beings happen to believe in the existence of the gods; the gods
demand a particular behavior, so people abide by the rules.
Now consider another common statement: "So-and-so became
more religious after his accident" (or: "after his partner had a brush
with death," "after his parents died," etc.). The way this is formulated
may be typical of modern Western conditions (in many places every-
body just takes it as obvious that there are ancestors or spirits around,
so it makes little sense to talk about anyone being more or less "reli-
gious") but the connection between misfortune and religion is salient
the world over. This is one of the principal contexts in which people
activate concepts of gods and spirits. Again, we find this natural
because we commonly accept a particular scenario about religious
[169]