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| June 6, 2010 | 'Religion made us human' | |
Washington:A psychologist has in a new book stressed that religion played a very important role in the grim struggles of prehistory, providing humans with a way to relate to each other and the world around them. Matt Rossano, professor
and head of the Department of Psychology at Southeastern and author of the book
"Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved", said religion offered them significant
survival and reproductive advantages. "The roots of religion stretch as far back
as half a million years, when our ancestors developed the motor controls to engage
in social rituals - that is, to sing and dance together," he said. He also revealed
that about 70,000 years ago, a global ecological crisis drove humanity to the
edge of extinction. "It forced the survivors to create new strategies for survival,
and religious rituals were foremost among them," he added. Rossano's work is,
in part, a response to the 2006 best-selling book "The God Delusion" by scientist
Richard Dawkins, an atheist manifesto that pitted science against religion. But,
according to Rossano, Dawkins missed the science that revealed how religion made
man more human. Neither an apologist for religion nor a religion-basher, he pulls
together the evidence from a wide range of disciplines to show the valuable purpose
served by a systematic belief in the supernatural. According to Rossano, evidence
seems to confirm that at its core religion was not about doctrines, creeds, institutions
or miracles, but about relationships. "Religion is a fundamental way for humans
to relate to each other and the world around them, and in early prehistory that
was a definite advantage," Rossano explained. "Religion emerged as our ancestors'
first health care system, and a critical part of that health care system was social
support. "Religious groups tended to be far more cohesive, which gave them a competitive
advantage over non-religious groups and enabled them to conquer the globe," he
stated. Rossano noted that for Dawkins and his supporters, there is nothing quite
so wicked as religion and all that trails in its wake: suicide bombers, Taliban-style
tyranny, child abusing clergy, etc. "But if religion was so clearly damaging to
the human psyche and so corrosive of human society, how could it have ever evolved?"
How is it possible that every culture throughout human history has had religion?"
he asked. "Time and again, studies show that religious people tend to be happier,
healthier, more generous and civic-minded than their non-religious counterparts,"
he continued. "Religion is also tenacious. Enlightenment thinkers promised that
religion would fade as science and reason provided a more accurate picture of
the natural world. "To the bewilderment of Dawkins and his ilk, the world seems
to have reneged on that Enlightenment promise," he concluded. Rossano, who has
studied the evolution of religion and other cognitive traits for some time, is
the author of "Evolutionary Psychology: The Science of Human Behavior and Evolution,"
as well as numerous papers on evolution, ritual, religion and moral behavior. |
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