progress is brought about by a very odd form of social interaction, in
which some of our motivational systems (a desire to reduce uncertainty,
to impress other people, to gain status, as well as the aesthetic appeal of
ingenuity) are recruited for purposes quite different from their evolu-
tionary background. In other words, scientific activity is both cogni-
tively and socially very unlikely,which is why it has only been developed
by a very small number of people, in a small number of places, for what
is only a minuscule part of our evolutionary history. As philosopher
Robert McCauley concludes, on the basis of similar arguments, science
is every bit as "unnatural" to the human mind as religion is "natural."^6
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HOW WE BECAME MODERN (AND RELIGIOUS):
AFOOTNOTE TO THE EPIC SCENARIOWho invented these gods and spirits, when and for what purpose?
Obviously, we all know that it is slightly absurd to wonder who
invented religion or when this happened, since what we call "reli-
gion" is a composite reality. We know that people in most human
groups have some notions of counterintuitive objects, including phys-
ically counterintuitive agents, among which some matter a lot by
virtue of the information they have, etc. But as far as we know, these
various elements may have had different histories. So the question
"When did humans get religion?" only makes sense if youdecide
which parts of this composite reality are crucial to religion.
But there is a more interesting way to proceed. Religion as we know
it probably appeared with the modern mind. It is convenient to date
the appearance of modern-type cultures at the symbolic "explosion"
that occurred some time between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, with
an abrupt change in the number and quality of artifacts produced by
modern humans, with a great variety of new objects some of which had
no practical utility, the use of ochre, the first cave paintings, elaborate
burial practices, etc. An important difference between these and earlier
cultural manifestations is found in the diversity of objects and repre-
sentations, which may indicate the emergence of those group-level
similarities and between-group differences that we call human cultures.
What prompted this outburst of creativity and diversity was cer-
tainly a change in mental activity. This is why it is tempting to think of
modern hominization as a kind of liberating process by which the mind
broke free of evolutionary shackles and became more flexible, moreRELIGION EXPLAINED