half-bison half-man painting in a cave in Dordogne, France (see narrative below)
In last week's post, we saw how the autobiographic self, the ability of our minds to travel to the past or future, can sometimes be a source of life-long suffering.
One of humanity's most effective coping mechanisms in the face of suffering is surrendering to a supernatural power, aka God. Religion and spirituality -a belief in a sacred dimension1- or its absence, is very much one of the many layers of our sense of Self.
Weak evidence for spiritual beliefs held by early hominids (belonging to the genus Homo) exists. This is primarily in the form of deliberately chosen, hard-to-access burial sites, suggesting a sacred, ritual treatment of the dead. These sites date to ~300,000 years ago. Significantly before the arrival of our species, Homo sapiens, who emerged ~200,000 years ago.
Strong archaeological evidence exists for spiritual or religious beliefs held by prehistoric humans. This includes the discovery of many cave paintings and burial sites that date to the Upper Paleolithic age (from ~50,000 to 12000 years ago).
Lowenmensch (lion-man) : possible cult figurine from Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany dated to 35-40,000 years ago
By Thilo Parg - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
Similar impossible figures are to be found in other cave paintings:
half-bison half-man painting in a cave in Dordogne, France
José-Manuel Benito - Own work
and a second lowenmensch figurine found in the Hohle-Fehl cave also in Germany. All these impossible figures, sacred burial sites and other evidence support the hypothesis of shared religious or cult beliefs amongst these people.
They were the earliest known modern humans in Europe. The total population then was between ~1450 - 30,000 humans spread over a large geographical area (most of Europe, from Spain to modern day Crimea). Archaeological evidence is currently lacking in other parts of the world. Similar finds elsewhere, are very likely, probably just a matter of time and adequate resources.
These early, biologically modern, Europeans lived in tiny groups of hunter-gatherers. Yet, they held religious beliefs. Beliefs strong enough to devote days, perhaps weeks and months, carving out elaborate figurines like the lowenmensch, while living in conditions we would consider desperate.
Why? What was the adaptive advantage of shared religious beliefs that compelled subsistence level, prehistoric humans to invest considerable resources into making these figurines? Why did they take the trouble to bury their dead in ceremonial fashion? Why did these beliefs persist and evolve into the massive, elaborate, organized religions that most of the current human population believes in? The estimates of people with religious beliefs range from 75 - 85% of total world population.
Did we inherit a predisposition for spirituality2?
The answer seems self-evident given the vast majority of humans on this planet hold religious or spiritual beliefs.
Ignoring a rising proportion of secular people for the time being, we immediately stumble over the existence of the many intractable differences within the various religious traditions themselves. Not least of which are literal interpretations of holy texts that fly in the face of myriad, overwhelming pieces of evidence that counter them.
Furthermore, most religious people would -mildly speaking- strongly object to being made aware of the possible non-human origins of their sacred beliefs. Finally, acknowledging that the biological underpinnings of these beliefs are subject to evolutionary forces like natural selection; will be truly a bitter pill to swallow!
Can we provide more compelling evidence than mere statistical prevalence of these spiritual beliefs worldwide? Can we narrow focus and identify universal features of all religions and link them to specific cognitive abilities in humans?
If such a project can provide compelling evidence for the biological underpinnings of spirituality, what would its implications be? It would obviously drive organized religion to retreat further than it has. But what would it mean for people who insist on a total lack of spirituality being the only scientifically sound position?
Indeed, at the very least, one needs to consider empirical findings that suggest people with secular beliefs fare worse than people of faith in various measures of health3. How do we reconcile our pride in rational thinking with our -currently unproven- biological instincts toward spirituality?
To attempt tracing the roots of our spiritual instincts, we begin with the near universal belief in an immaterial soul, found in the major religions of the world. Buddhism is the one exception that seems to prove this almost rule.
At a very simplistic level, and with sincere apologies to the subtleties that exist, we can take the briefest of surveys of the world’s largest religions.
Most Christians believe every human has an immortal soul that departs the body after death and is destined for Heaven or Hades.
Islam, the world's second most popular religion, also believes in the existence of a 'rooh' and 'nafs' translated as the spirit and soul which leave the human body after death.
Hinduism, or Dharma (Law) as it is referred to in Sanskrit, believes in the indestructible, eternal 'atman' in every living creature that is subject to reincarnation until it achieves 'moksha' or freedom from the cycles of rebirth and death.
The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, the Indus valley civilization, all believed in immaterial souls that left the body, albeit with many differences in the details. Shamanistic traditions, proto-religions in many parts of the world, also share this belief in an immaterial soul that can depart the body under various circumstances.
How did this universal belief emerge and survive across all this time and geography? Culture, very likely, played a big role in transmitting specific beliefs from generation to generation.
Yet culture cannot explain the near universality of this belief, its sheer longevity, and its likely origins in our hominid ancestors. Another possibility exists, that of personal, mystical experience occurring time and again in various parts of the world. A first hand experience relatable enough to this universal belief that somehow reinforces it.
Next time we will look in some detail at neurological phenomena that may underpin this belief of an apparently immaterial, immortal soul.
Spiritual But Not Religious? Evidence for Two Independent Dispositions. Gerard Saucier and Katarzyna Skrzypinska, Journal of Personality, 2006
The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why it Endures. Nicholas Wade, 2009
The religion-health connection: Evidence, theory, and future directions. CG Ellison, JS Levin. Health Education & Behavior, 1998
Quite thought provoking. How much is this linked to the evolution of consciousness in species?
This is a really great article! I wonder if it goes farther than this, and if it can show up in different species. For example, it’s been shown in chimpanzees, apparently.
https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/06/01/530937607/a-twist-in-discussions-of-chimpanzee-spirituality
And I think I have heard about it in elephants!