Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:54:52.425Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Even “Bigger Gods” developed amongst the pastoralist followers of Moses and Mohammed: Consistent with uncertainty and disadvantage, but not prosocality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2016

Edward Dutton  and
Guy Madison
Edward Dutton
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Oulo University, FI-90014, Finland. ecdutton@hotmail.com
Guy Madison
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. guy.madison@psy.umu.sehttp://www.umu.se/english
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The gods of monotheistic religions, which began amongst pastoralists and defeated exiles, are closer to Big Gods than those associated with ancient city-based polities. The development of Big Gods is contingent upon a need to reduce uncertainty and negative feelings in combination with a relatively high level of prosociality, rather than a need to induce or assess prosociality.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e11
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bruce, S. (2002) God is dead: Secularization in the West. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Coogan, M. (2009) A brief introduction to the Old Testament. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
De Benoist, A. (2004) On being a pagan. Ultra.Google Scholar
Dutton, E. (2008) Meeting Jesus at university: Rites of passage and student evangelicals. Ashgate.Google Scholar
Dutton, E. (2014) Religion and intelligence: An evolutionary analysis. Ulster Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Hills, P., Francis, L. J., Argyle, M. & Jackson, C. (2004) Primary personality trait correlates of religious practice and orientation. Personality and Individual Differences 36:61–73.Google Scholar
Inzlicht, M., McGregor, I., Hirsh, J. B. & Nash, K. (2009) Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science 20:385–92.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
James, W. (1902) The varieties of religious experience: A study in human nature. Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Kay, A. C., Shepherd, S., Blatz, C., Chua, S. & Galinsky, A. (2010) For God (or) country: The hydraulic relation between government instability and belief in religious sources of control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 99:725–39.Google Scholar
Lapidius, I. (2002) A history of Islamic societies. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Persinger, M. (1983) Religious and mystical experiences as artifacts of temporal lobe function: A general hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills 57:1255–62.Google Scholar
Peterson, J. B. (1999) Maps of meaning: The architecture of belief. Routledge.Google Scholar
Rambo, L. (1993) Understanding religious conversion. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rushton, J. P. (1995) Race, evolution and behavior: A life history perspective. Transaction.Google Scholar
Rutjens, B. T., van der Pligt, J. & van Harreveld, F. (2010) Deus or Darwin: Randomness and belief in theories about the origin of life. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 46:1078–80.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. (2009) The world of thought in ancient China. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1993) The sociology of religion. Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Zhao, Y. (2010) Chinese religion: A contextual approach. A. & C. Black.Google Scholar