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The Birth of High Gods How the Cultural Evolution of Supernatural Policing Influenced the Emergence of Complex, Cooperative Human Societies, Paving the Way for Civilization
Azim F. Shariff , Ara Norenzayan , and Joseph Henrich
Voltaire’s well-tread quote, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him,” was written with direct reference to the effectiveness of God as a supernatural policing agent (Voltaire & Redman, 1977). We argue that indeed supernatural policing was a driving force for the invention of God, but this invention—like so many other cultural products—was not the product of a brilliant religious mind or a committee of Machiavellian priests. Instead, omniscient, moralizing supernatural agents derived from a suite of religious beliefs that were culturally selected for their ability to galvanize cooperation in larger groups, promote in-group cohesion, and foster competition with other social groups. The emergence of religions, and modern world religions in particular, has been a cumulative process involving myriad interacting individuals that stretched over hundreds of generations of interacting individuals within the context of intergroup competition.
Humans are not just social, group-living animals but also highly cultural animals (Henrich, in press; Norenzayan, Schaller, & Heine, 2006). The cognitive and behavioral capacities that make human culture possible—complex communication skills, social learning mechanisms, and biased information processing that favors common traits and prestigious individuals—evolved because they allow individuals to readily adapt their behavior to the novel and changing environments at rates much faster than genetic evolution (Boyd & Richerson, 1998; Henrich & Boyd, 1998; Henrich & Gil-White, 2001; Richerson & Boyd, 2005; Tomasello, 1999; Tomasello, Kruger, & Ratner, 1993).