Evolution and Religion

This month we’ll be discussing Evolution and Religion. We’ll be considering questions such as: When did humans develop spiritual thought? Is there an evolutionary basis for religion? What role has religion played in human social history? And in our increasingly secular world, why has it endured?

In his book How Religion Evolved, evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar tracks religions origins back to what he terms the ‘mystical stance’ – the aspect of human psychology that predisposes us to believe in a transcendent world, and which makes an encounter with the spiritual possible. Dunbar argues that this instinct is not a peculiar human quirk, an aberration on our otherwise efficient evolutionary journey. Rather, religion confers a benefit on our individual health and wellbeing, but, more importantly, it fosters social bonding at large scale, helping hold fractious societies together.

Robin Dunbar is not an advocate of religion. In fact, he’s a patron of Humanists UK. If Dunbar is right, what are the implications for us in a society where the role of religion is becoming increasingly less important?