Darwinism Amongst Religions

“We behave better when we believe we’re being watched”, writes Brian Klass in Corruptible. Today, that line brings to mind CCTV cameras that are all over the place, and government systems that could get info on our online habits. But long, long ago, when policing systems were practically non-existent, how could one make people follow basic rules? This wasn’t just a law and order problem for kings. As we know all too well, if we can’t trust people and there are no systems in place to penalize and punish wrongdoers, then economic activities (and associated prosperity) never get going…

 

Until policing and judicial systems could be built, the way to build some basis for trust amongst people in most places was the concept of religion:

“The world’s major religions are overflowing with reminders that God is watching.”

Religion helped build some degree of trust, as long as everyone believed that one would pay, “either in this life or the next”.

 

Klass humourously calls this MAD. The original MAD stood for Mutually Assured Destruction – the reason why the US and USSR didn’t launch nukes at each other during the Cold War. In the context of religion serving as a way to drive better behavior, he says MAD stands for Mutually Assured Damnation!

 

Earlier Gods weren’t interested in human affairs – they were only associated with natural phenomenon like rain. But as human groups got larger to the point where everyone did not know everyone else and interactions with strangers grew more and more common, the newer Gods started caring more and more about human affairs – they were the justification for why the royal line deserved to rule; they watched every one of our actions to eventually punish or reward us.

 

Groups that didn’t make this switch in their Gods couldn’t build trust, never grew in size, and thus failed to get all the benefits of economies of scale and specialization. Those that did make the switch fared far better. Which is why Klass calls it the “survival of the holiest” hypothesis.

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