Religion is not a maladaptive “illusion” (Freud), nor is religion a manipulative “opiate” (Marx). Religious behavior is a ubiquitous biological adaptation rooted in Homo Sapien Humans, because religion like intelligence and language helps human communities survive.
Religion, like intelligence and language. can be used for both good and evil purposes, but this is also true of culture, science, politics and all other important human activities. Since almost all revealed religions teach that humans have a pre-birth soul that predisposes them to respond to a Divine call even before the revelation occurs, I identify the existence of a biological based self- conscious spiritual soul with the evolution of Homo Sapiens human spirituality.
Scholarly opinion has gone back and forth on the issue of whether or not Neanderthals were a different species from humans. Dating and genetic evidence appear to be nailing down their identification as a closely related but different species from Homo sapien humans.
On the dating side, Neanderthals appear to have arisen in Europe and the Near East about 4-500,000 years ago, acquiring somewhat different features than Homo sapiens, which arose about 2-300,000 years ago in Africa, with no apparent contact between the two until much later, Thus they spent a very long time as populations isolated from one another.
And then there’s the genetic differences. While there’s some overlap between Neanderthal and human genes in some populations, indicating interbreeding outside of Africa, the nature of those genes indicates that we’re closely related but not the same species. It appears that humans and Neanderthals are slightly infertile, like horses and donkeys, but not fully fertile like members of the same species.
Asian elephants loudly mourn and bury their dead calves, said a study by Indian scientists that details animal behavior reminiscent of human funeral rites. Researchers identified five calf burials conducted by elephants in the north of India’s Bengal region in 2022 and 2023, according to the studypublishedin theJournal of Threatened Taxa. They found in each case that a herd carried the deceased calf by the trunk and legs before burying it in the earth with its legs facing upward.
So if tool making, culture, self awareness, language and burials do not distinguish humans from our nearest primate relatives, what makes humans what we are?
I offer a combination of all the above plus human religious behavior as an answer. A reference to a prehistoric period when spiritual evolution was unaided by God appears in the book of Genesis (4:26) where it states, “At that time humans began to invoke YHVH by name.” Most of the rabbinic commentators translate the verb hukhal to mean ‘profane’ taking this as a negative statement. But ‘began’ is the more normal meaning of the verb.
The Torah asserts that prior to Enosh humans did not practice religion based on the divine insight of revelation “invoke YHVH by name” that they were able to do later. Mystical and spiritual experiences were interpreted by human intelligence without the benefit of prophetic revelation. In the spirit of this Torah insight I offer the following account of the evolution of prehistoric human spirituality.
All sentient beings are able to respond to the challenges of life. In each species some individuals respond to new environmental challenges better than others do; and their descendants increase. Some sentient beings that are conscious are capable of learning from the challenges of life. They can improve themselves. A few are even able to show others what they have learned and thus improve their group and their descendants’ chances of survival. These species have developed cultural ways of meeting life’s challenges. For many centuries it was thought that mankind’s ability to use tools was what made us unique.
However, we now know that several different species use tools (including birds) and Chimps not only use but also make at least three different kinds of tools for different functions. Chimp tool use differs in different locations (a cultural not a genetic difference). Chimps also show signs of self-awareness by recognizing themselves in a mirror. So what makes humans what we are?
First, we are a small group, hierarchically organized, social primates. Any genes that enable the group (extended family and/or band) to function better will contribute to individual survival and reproduction.
Second, the species that preceded Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal have been evolving larger and larger brains for over a million years. Eventually two species, Homo Sapiens and Homo Neanderthal evolved that achieved self-conscious ways of meeting life’s challenges through non-material i.e. cultural and spiritual behaviors.
Increasing dependence on mental capacities became problematic for those individual HN and HS who malfunctioned mentally or emotionally. Any genes that would help ameliorate individual mental and emotional challenges like stress and anxiety would be selected for and would spread throughout the population. Ancient DNA from bones has revealed thathumans coexisted with Neanderthals almost 45,000 years ago in Germany.
Spiritual activities among HS have evolved over the last 120-160,000 years. If one takes seriously the Biblical claim that humanity was created in the Divine image, spiritual evolution testifies to the creation of creatures who are co-creators of purpose driven non-material responses to environmental and social challenges. This prepared them to respond appropriately when Divine revelations occurred in historical times.
A great deal of unnecessary conflict and misunderstanding has been caused by the careless use of the terms ‘human’ and ‘man’ to describe the increasing number of fossil finds of tool using biped species that may have been ancestral to Homo Sapiens. I shall try to refer to each distinct species by its scientific name only. Most people think that the name ‘human’ or ‘mankind’ should be reserved only for our own species. Not using the name ‘human’ and ‘man’ carelessly might help resolve some of the conflict over the theory of evolution.
The evolution of spiritual activities that enhance the successful survival of humanity is not only concerned with enhancing the survival of our own species. With the recent domestication of plants and animals and the very recent industrial revolution, Homo Sapiens (HS) acquired a great deal of responsibility for the evolution of most of the species on the planet itself.
Thus the behavior of religious people themselves now becomes a factor in the evolution of life on earth. Religious behaviors are evidence of self-conscious creative thought processes most people associate with Homo Sapiens. Religious behaviors are the creative responses of intelligent minds to certain challenges in life.
Homo Sapiens (HS) faced more than half a dozen different challenges over the last 150,000 years that stimulated spiritual developments that improved survival rates both for groups and individuals within the group. One of the greatest challenges to increased intellectual development is anxiety and self-imposed stress.
The more HS can think about things, the greater the ability to produce anxiety and self-imposed stress that are debilitating by themselves, and also depress the immune system. Anything that reduces stress and anxiety increases survival rates for intelligent minds.
Also as successful groups got larger it became harder and harder to keep them from internal conflict and splitting. Larger groups, or groups with strong alliances, were more likely to win when there was inter-group conflict and had reduced negative effects from inbreeding.
Thus technological advances and the accumulation of other know-how get a jump start as populations expand, according to evolutionary biologist Maxime Derex of the University of Montpellier 2 in France. His laboratory experiments reported November 13, 2013 in Nature, indicate that improvements in tool design occur more frequently as group size grows.
Anything that helped larger groups create bonds that were more than family, and behavioral norms that were more than mimicking would increase survival rates. Individuals with a mental illness could not contribute much to a tribe or band. Anything that helped heal or integrate these individuals would help survival rates. These are some of the situations faced by a species that began using its mind more and more.
Although other species also dream, the intelligent minds of HS creatively concluded that dreams about the dead showed that the dead were still active and could continue to help their descendants. Thus departed spirits ought to be venerated and worshipped. . It is possible that nomadic hunter-gatherer bands used the skulls of important individuals in community rituals for many centuries. Two HS skulls from Herto in Ethiopia, well worn through handling, have been dated to more than 140,000 years ago. These ritual activities strengthened feelings of kinship within and among hunter-gatherer bands enabling them to be more stable and grow larger.
This in turn increased the chances for survival of individuals within the more effective bands and clans. Ritual activities and ideas about help available from deceased ancestors reduced stress and anxiety and so led HS to expand the realm of spirits to the treatment of physical and mental illness. We now know that anxiety and stress weaken the immune system and increase the chances of not surviving an otherwise survivable illness. Anything that reduces anxiety and stress increases survival rates. This is one key reason that religious behavior became ubiquitous.
Without successful reproduction no species can flourish, or even survive. HS were as subject to the biological imperative (commandment) to be fruitful and multiply as all other species. But the intelligent minds of HS knew the dangers of childbirth. Infant mortality rates in most tribes were more than one in four. The maternal death rate for every four births was more than one in ten. Pregnancy was highly desired and birth anxiously awaited. Pregnant women naturally sought the physical help of their mothers and grandmothers who in turn sought the spiritual help of their now departed mothers and grandmothers.
Among the earliest Gods were birth Goddesses. Small stone figures of very pregnant birth Goddesses often referred to as “Venus” figures go back 30-35,000 years. They are the first examples of iconic religion. The worship of spirits within natural phenomena does not need iconic representation. But birth rarely took place in the open or in public.
The birth Goddess needed to be present in some tangible way in order to ease the anxiety of women in labor. Even today in some African countries the maternal mortality rate is 3% per birth. A woman who gave birth to 8 children had a one in four chance of dying from giving birth. Any band would benefit even if the presence of Goddesses reduced that mortality rate by only 5%. Carvings in wood of birth Goddesses probably preceded stone statues by many millennia and may have originated 50-100,000 years ago.
Shamans also found that visual aids helped their patients relate to the mysterious struggle that the Shaman fought in the foreign spirit world. Since the spirits of animals were often involved both as friend and foe, much of prehistoric rock art (especially in difficult to access caves) probably relates to Shamanistic healing rites. Eventually iconic representations of gods and spirits would become almost universal. In historic times these icons would be viewed by increasing numbers of people as representatives rather than incarnations of the Divine.
There was no reason to limit activities of spirits to the realm of the dead or the diseased. All natural phenomena could be motivated by spirit minds. Self-aware intelligent minds that can read the intentions and motivations of others can also project all kinds of motivations onto other people, animals, objects and events. The movement of herds; the quantity of animals, fruits and spring water; thunder, floods and drought; indeed everything that happens in nature can be ascribed to the will of spirits. Gifts and offerings should be able to influence these spirits (intelligent minds do not like to admit to impotence) and so regular offerings should be made by a group/clan/tribe, to keep the natural forces friendly. Western anthropologists influenced by Christian thinking refer to these offerings as sacrifices.
The Hebrew term korban is both more accurate and more insightful. The verb l’karayv means to draw near or come close. A korban is a way to attach, engage or bind the human realm to the spirit realm. When food and drink are offered to another it is not a sacrifice. Food and liquid offerings are an invitation to a closer relationship. Especially during ceremonial occasions food and drink serve to bring people together, including those who have been estranged from one another because of transgressions that have occurred. Thus offerings to the Gods can help people who feel estranged from God return to a closer (karayv) relationship.
The food offered to a God is usually eaten wholly or in part by those who contribute it or by the priests who offer it. The Biblical God doesn’t want grain or meat offerings (Psalm 40:7). Humans offer them, especially when they feel estranged from the Divine, in order to draw closer (karayv) to the Divine. Only human sacrifice should be called sacrifice. While human sacrifice was widespread in the past it was usually relatively rare.
Ritual specialists, who unlike charismatic Shamans are more likely to be administrator types, usually direct these offerings. As time goes on the rites tend to get more complex and the necessary skills require more training. Those people performing the complex rites easily become a hereditary cast of professional priests. They sometimes also offer an alternative type of leadership to that of the hunter/warrior types.
Priests can become the custodians of the customary law of the tribe. Priests can offer advice to help in making important decisions by consulting the gods to determine their will. Fortune telling enables decision-makers to avoid the backlash of wrong decisions while claiming credit for the good ones. Divination also reduces many people’s anxiety about difficult decisions in unclear situations. Even today millions of Americans still consult astrology charts and in Asia people in many Buddhist temples still cast their fortunes.
Most people feel better when they are in control of the important factors in their life. The strong desire for control coupled with belief in good and evil spirits eventually leads some HS intelligent minds to attempt to force a spirit to do what an individual wants it to do. Magic is an attempt to subjugate a force in the spiritual world for another person’s weal or woe. Magic is always dangerous because people believe that the spirits do not like to be enslaved by humans and power tends to corrupt even those with good intentions.
Yet many tribal religions still have lots of room for defensive magic and even those religions that condemn magic have occasional practitioners. Again, the mind-body placebo effect makes magic effective in some societies where belief in magic and superstitions is widespread and well accepted. Accusations of magic and witchcraft are also widespread in some tribal societies. They can be the result of paranoia or scapegoating as often, if not more often, than the actual incidence of magic. Magic and superstitions are the dark side of HS spirituality.
HS humans also started exchanging i.e. trading for desirable objects not found in their usual locale. Seashells, obsidian, flint, red ocher and other materials have been found in campsites and graves more than 100-200 miles away from their closest source. The stronger the attraction of a special place, the greater the effort that distant clans will make to attend, so gathering spots that are turned into sacred sites of pilgrimage through special seasonal rites will enrich human communities.
There are scholars who think that HS advanced trade networks helped them out compete Homo Neanderthals in Europe (recent studies of Neanderthal DNA have shown that they were a distinct species not ancestral to HS. However there was some interbreeding in Europe and Asia because about 4-5% of non African HS genes come from HN). The need for all the clans to show up about the same time leads to fixed seasonal holy days and a religious calendar.
The need to mark time for pilgrimage festivals led people to study the cycle of the moon and the movement of the constellations and thus move some of the spirit powers into the sky. Up to 10-15,000 years ago an impressive natural wonder like a mountain or a noticeable tree served as a holy place for pilgrimage. Then HS tribes began to build monumental outdoor sanctuaries. The oldest structure discovered so far is Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, not far from the Syrian border. It was begun more than 11,000 years ago, and thus predates the earliest villages by 2,000 years. Monumental building activity required organizing large groups of workers to build structures over many decades.
Physically the HS body has not changed much in the last 100,000 years. The HS body 20,000 years before this transition period (50-70,000 years ago) is not different from the HS body 20,000 years later. But a major change did occur in artistic and other cultural activities. Perhaps the imaginative faculties of HS grew substantially thus causing inspiration and creativity to become more frequent and more rapidly spread.
That something very important happened to HS about 50-70.000 years ago is clear even if we do not yet have evidence of exactly what happened. It should be noted that HN and a sister species recently discovered in Siberia, the Denisovans, became extinct in a relatively short period of 1,000 generations following the HS transition of 50-70,000 years ago. Also, many species of megafauna became extinct in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America during the 40 millennia following the HS transition.
I have not devoted much attention to the development of concepts of God in this essay. It is often said that religion developed to answer the big philosophical questions that still challenge the mind of theologians and intellectuals. However, this applies to only a small percentage of people. The vast majority of people need religion to handle the moral stresses and emotional anxieties of living in an increasingly complex society.
While beliefs about God are of great concern to Christians, most other religions focus much more attention on dietary self-discipline, public and private life cycle rituals, inducing mystical experiences, standards of social and personal behavior, healing sickness and sin, community ceremonies and celebrations, and creating a firm community and individual religious identity. Formal creeds and religious beliefs are a small and recent development within the much larger domain of trust and group loyalty that has been evolving among pre HS human species for hundreds of millennia.
Recent brain studies have shown how organic trust and sharing are to human minds. Activities that build group loyalty and interpersonal trust enhance individual survival and promote individual spirituality much more than cognitive beliefs and ideologies. The impact of religions with written revelations on historic human culture is comparable to the impact of modern science and invention on 20th century lifestyles. Both together will make the 21st century a turning point in human destiny.
What role does God (the One God of the Abrahamic religions) play in all this? According to Genesis 4:26 humans only began to call upon the name of the Lord in the days of Enosh. That could mean that prior to Enosh prehistoric religions evolved naturally. Only with the rise of scriptural revelations did the One God penetrate human consciousness.
Or it could mean that human consciousness had finally risen to the level of being able to receive Divine communication from the One God. It took over 3,000 years for monotheism to spread world-wide even with scriptural revelations so it is not surprising that it took over 100,000 years to get humans ready to receive revelations.
Spirituality among Homo Sapien humans has been evolving for at least 100-150,000 years. It
is as deeply, if not more deeply rooted, in the HS brain as art or music. Recent studies,
especially those on adult twins who were raised apart, suggest genes contribute about
40% of the variability in a person’s general religiousness.
The idea that reason, socialism or modern science would replace religion has turned out to be a wish fulfillment fantasy of people who bear a grudge against religion. Usually their children or grandchildren return to religion. Religious rituals and ideas are ubiquitous and continue to evolve as the creative intelligent minds of Homo Sapien humans change with their environment. This will likely continue as long as Homo Sapien humans have creative intelligent minds.
This may explain why the thousands of pre-Abraham prophets failed to establish ongoing monotheistic religions; and why the descendants of Prophet Abraham and the twelve sons of Jacob-Israel were the only ongoing monotheistic religion for more than twelve centuries.
