5 Minute Summary of Creating God

1

In order to cooperate in larger groups, we needed a common cultural idea that created shared trust.

For the vast vast history of our species, we didn't live in groups larger than 50 to 150. One of the reasons for this is from a genetic standpoint is that we are only built to cooperate with as many people as we can know well.

When you go beyond 50 to 150 people, which is beyond the # of people you can know well, you to have freeriders or cheaters in the group. And when you have too much of this, the group can't sustain itself.

It was only in the last 12,000 years that we ed to have groups become larger than 100-150, going up to 1,000 to 10,000 people. For this to happen, we needed something larger than just our genetic inheritance, we needed a cultural idea as a basis to trust someone.

Azim believes that religion was one of these cultural ideas, and suggests that part of the reason for religion to occur, was so people would have a shared belief in order to cooperate, which is also why Azim argues that there's a positive correlation with how punitive or inclined to punish the gods in a particular religion are, with the size of the group.

Because people tended to act right if they thought there was a common god that was going to punish them for doing wrong, and the larger the group, the more strict the punishments needed to be.

1

In order to cooperate in larger groups, we needed a common cultural idea that created shared trust.

For the vast vast history of our species, we didn't live in groups larger than 50 to 150. One of the reasons for this is from a genetic standpoint is that we are only built to cooperate with as many people as we can know well.

When you go beyond 50 to 150 people, which is beyond the # of people you can know well, you to have freeriders or cheaters in the group. And when you have too much of this, the group can't sustain itself.

It was only in the last 12,000 years that we ed to have groups become larger than 100-150, going up to 1,000 to 10,000 people. For this to happen, we needed something larger than just our genetic inheritance, we needed a cultural idea as a basis to trust someone.

Azim believes that religion was one of these cultural ideas, and suggests that part of the reason for religion to occur, was so people would have a shared belief in order to cooperate, which is also why Azim argues that there's a positive correlation with how punitive or inclined to punish the gods in a particular religion are, with the size of the group.

Because people tended to act right if they thought there was a common god that was going to punish them for doing wrong, and the larger the group, the more strict the punishments needed to be.

2

We can apply evolutionary theory of selection to cultural ideas as well.

In biology, the survival of organisms & traits is based on how well they fit & perform in their environment, survival of the fittest.

The same theory can be applied to cultural ideas, where the ideas that survive are based on the ones that fit what the society of the time needs best.

This isn't just for religion, but in religion, you can see why it's so powerful; because only the powerful religions and stories within a religion will survive.

You can understand today's religions as baring the legacies of trial and error and selection, and what they're made up of is what's served social functions in the past and attributed to the societies that survived.

You can see these patterns in the historical record. In ancient times, humans worshipped gods that would prevent natural disaster, but as the needs of societies changed, their gods changed too. As people built better cities and civizalizations that were more resillient, there were new kinds of gods with different powers emerged.

2

We can apply evolutionary theory of selection to cultural ideas as well.

In biology, the survival of organisms & traits is based on how well they fit & perform in their environment, survival of the fittest.

The same theory can be applied to cultural ideas, where the ideas that survive are based on the ones that fit what the society of the time needs best.

This isn't just for religion, but in religion, you can see why it's so powerful; because only the powerful religions and stories within a religion will survive.

You can understand today's religions as baring the legacies of trial and error and selection, and what they're made up of is what's served social functions in the past and attributed to the societies that survived.

You can see these patterns in the historical record. In ancient times, humans worshipped gods that would prevent natural disaster, but as the needs of societies changed, their gods changed too. As people built better cities and civizalizations that were more resillient, there were new kinds of gods with different powers emerged.

3

The larger the sacrifice, the stronger that you're able to signal to others of your commitment to something.

In religions, there are a number of sacrificial activities. The key is that, those that are involved in the sacrifice, don't usually view it as a sacrifice in order to signal to others, they do this because of it's a part of their religion that they believe in.

Some researchers argue that the reason why religions even have sacrificial activities in the first place, is because of the value of signalling to others that you're committed to the same thing such as a religion, as others, once again, building that trust for social cooperation.

3

The larger the sacrifice, the stronger that you're able to signal to others of your commitment to something.

In religions, there are a number of sacrificial activities. The key is that, those that are involved in the sacrifice, don't usually view it as a sacrifice in order to signal to others, they do this because of it's a part of their religion that they believe in.

Some researchers argue that the reason why religions even have sacrificial activities in the first place, is because of the value of signalling to others that you're committed to the same thing such as a religion, as others, once again, building that trust for social cooperation.