Complex societies existed before a belief in moralising gods: Ideas about ‘sin’ and ‘evil’ evolved to stop large cultures descending into chaos
- Study concluded that as societies get bigger, religions become more ‘moralistic’
- Religions start to feature tough moral codes once societies reach one million
- The studies looked at many religions including those of the ancient Greeks
- These tough moral codes stop people from acting in anti-social ways, they found
Religions that feature vengeful gods who punish wicked sinners developed to keep big societies in line, a study has found.
Faiths which feature mighty deities who dish out supernatural punishment are common in many major world religions.
But now a wide-ranging study has concluded that as societies get bigger, religions become more ‘moralistic’ – featuring codes that result in divine retribution if you break them.
And they are more likely to feature a powerful god or gods who punish those who step out of line.
Or, in the case of Buddhism, punishment for wrongdoers through reincarnation as a lowly creature such as an insect.
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Religions that feature vengeful gods who punish wicked sinners developed to keep big societies in line, a study has found. Faiths which feature mighty deities who dish out supernatural punishment are common in many major world religions (stock image)
Religions start to feature tough moral codes once societies reach more than one million people, the research found.
The codes stop people acting in anti-social ways.
Debate has raged for years whether having religions that have tough moral codes came first – allowing people to live together in harmony.
Or, whether the religions developed tough morality after big groups of people from many different tribes got together.
To find out, researchers at Oxford University and others studied the religions of 414 societies over 10,000 years.
A wide-ranging study has concluded that as societies get bigger, religions become more ‘moralistic’ – featuring codes that result in divine retribution if you break them (stock image)
The studies looked at many religions including those of the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, native Americans as well as the Abrahamic god of Christianity, Judaism and Islam, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.
They measured how complex each society was based on historical records.
They then assessed each religion for how much it stressed gods or other supernatural agents enforcing morality.
The authors, led by Patrick Savage of Keio University in Japan said ‘recent millennia’ has seen the rise of what he calls ‘big pro-social’ religions, featuring ‘either powerful “moralising high gods’ such as the Abrahamic god or more general ‘broad supernatural punishment’ such as karma in Buddhism.
The authors write: ‘Our analyses not only confirm the association between moralising gods and social complexity.
‘But also reveal that moralising gods follow—rather than precede— large increases in social complexity.
‘Moralizing gods …may help to sustain and expand complex multi-ethnic empires after they have become established.’
