Religion or Tribalism

Organised religion can be regarded as an expression of tribalism.

The power of organised religions is based upon their contribution to social order and personal security, not on their contribution to the search for truth. The goal of religions is submission to the will and common good of the tribe.

Historians and other scholars with an evolutionary perspective have discovered the steps that led to the hierachical and dogmatic structures of modern religions:

• People began to reflect on their own mortality in late Paleolithic times. Where do all these dead people go? The answer was obvious to them: The departed still lived and regularly rejoined the living in dreams. It was in the spirit world of dreams - and most vividly in drug-hallucinations - that their deceased relatives dwelled, along with allies, enemies, gods, angels, demons and monsters.
• Shamans appeared and started to interpret these visions. They claimed that the apparitions (=Erscheinungen) controlled the fate of the tribe, whereby the supernatural beings were assumed to have the same emotions, reasonings and motives (e.g. being loving, jealous, angry and vengeful) as living people.
• With the Neolithic revolution (and particularly during the emergence of states) alliances were made for trade and war, and as different different tribes fought for religious supremacy, the gods were sometimes shared.
• As social complexity grew, so did the responsibility of the gods for maintaining social stability. The priestly human surrogates (=Stellvertreter) achieved this by top-down political control.
• Whilst during the early Israelite formation (which was to become the powerful Abrahamic religions) there were still multiple gods, the single god Yahweh gained absolute power in time.

Religious believers today, as in acient times, are not much interested in theology, and not at all in the evolutionary steps that led to the present-day world religions. They are concerned instead with religious faith and the benefits it provides.

The creation myths - which form the core of traditional organised religions - explain all the religious believers need to know of deep history in order to maintain tribal unity. When faced by threat and competition from outside groups, their personal faith promises stability and peace. Religious faith offers the psychological security that comes from belonging to a group, and in particular a group which is blessed by the divine.

These benefits require a submission - but is this an obeisance (=Verbeugung / Ehrerbietung) to God or perhaps an obeisance to no more than a tribe united by a creation myth?

Religious faith can be regarded as an unseen trap which was unavoidable during the evolutionary biological history of our human species. Humankind deserves better ways to find spiritual fulfillment without surrender (=Unterwerfung) and enslavement (=Hörigkeit).


(Inspiration and extracts taken from Edward O. Wilson, The Social Conquest of Earth)