Today’s Post
Thus far we have explored a secular definition of religion, seeing it as
– a way of making sense of things
– a locus for our evolved understanding
– a basis for our acting
– a context for our sense of belonging
– a signpost to transcendence.
While all these aspects of religion contribute to our ongoing evolution as a species and as individual persons, one last venue of activity remains to be addressed, and that is the influence of religion on stabilizing society.
The Neocortex Brain Influence on Human Behavior
All human activities must fall along a fine line between anarchy and monarchy if society is to be stabilized. We must have enough autonomy to be free to grow and produce, but not so much that our oft-human tendencies toward violence and disruption undermine our personal and cultural edifices.
I have proposed that the key activity of human evolution can be found in the mediating influence of the neocortex brain on the more primitive stimuli of the reptilian (aggression) and limbic (emotion) brains. At some primitive level, these stimuli are critical to our survival, but they play a lesser role as human society becomes more evolved.
Nothing is more natural to us than the spurt of irritation which can result from social interactions. As our society becomes more crowded, and the pace of life more hectic and chaotic, our instinctive reaction to the many interactions necessary to conduct our affairs becomes less trustworthy. That’s where the neocortex can step in.
“Have I really been insulted, impugned, threatened?” “Is anger the best response?” “What outcome do I really want from this interaction?” Holding off an instinctive negative reaction until the neocortex can deal with it is a universally acknowledged sign of maturity. Using the powers of the neocortex brain to develop and codify cohesive standards of behavior is a universally acknowledged sign of stability in any society
Most of such universal standards of behavior have come about over long periods of cultural evolution captured in and transmitted through religious beliefs and practices.
Survival and Civilization
With insects and lower animals, the individual is lost without the society. As consciousness raises in the mammals, the uniqueness of the individual also increases, bursting into the issues of belonging, becoming and trusting as played out in human society. The many mechanisms of civilization are indeed necessary for our survival, but how are they themselves to be managed.?
Religion and Civilization
Robin Dunbar, evolutionary biologist, finds a correlation among species between brain size and the average size of ‘natural’ groups. Based on this he finds that the optimum human group size to be about 150 persons. He sees this metric borne out in the first historical stirrings of human groups, in the family, the tribe, the village and the clan.
At these smallest levels, the actions of belonging, becoming and trusting are easier to manage. As it becomes more necessary for these small groups to federate into a larger state, the problem of ‘cohesion vs aggression’ begins to rise.
As Jonathan Sacks points out in his book, “Not in God’s Name”, the key to belonging to a group is the aspect of common identity. This common identity assures the ‘reciprocal altruism’ necessary for competition for resources, group defense and the sustainment of culture required to assure that knowledge and wisdom are passed from generation to generation.
On the negative side, it also assures an element of duality in group thinking. “Common identity” also fosters a sense of ‘we’ in ‘our’ group, against the sense of ‘the others’ in ‘their’ groups. The ‘reciprocal altruism’ which underpins the cohesiveness of ‘our’ group is not matched by a natural sense of altruism with the ‘other’ groups. As Sacks points out:
“Reciprocal altruism creates trust between neighbors, people who meet repeatedly and know about one another’s character. The birth of the city posed a different and much greater problem: how do you establish trust between strangers?”
Sacks sees this as a pivotal point in history: “The point at which culture took over from nature and religion was born”. In this light, religion can now be seen as a basis for organized social structure:
“Regardless of whether we regard religion as true or false, it clearly has adaptive value because it appeared at the dawn of civilization and has been a central feature of almost every society since.”
By ‘sanctifying the social order’, Sacks finds that “the early religions created moral communities, thus solving the problem of trust between strangers.” Religion at its base bridges the gap between the altruism practiced in natural groups and the behavior so essential to the interactions among such groups. As Sacks asserts:
“Religion enters the equation only because it is the most powerful force ever devised for the creation and maintenance of large-scale groups by solving the problem of trust between strangers.”
Next Week’s Post
Today we have seen how the actions of the neocortex brain have played out in the invention and evolution of moral communities that extend the cohesiveness of natural communities to the level of society at large, enabling the continuing evolution of civilization.
That said, however, the dark side of such activity needs to be addressed. Even the most cursory look at today’s headlines shows the many dimensions of incivility at work in the world today, in which the stability of civilization itself is threatened, and with which religion plays a part. Next week’s post will address this.