The Nostalgia for Origins: Religion, Evolution, Cognition and Memory

By Carl Olson

Using the theme of nostalgia for origins, this work proposes to examine the origin of religion within the context of the theory of evolution and the development of the human brain. It is argued that Darwin’s concept of natural selection gives the impression of making Homo sapiens passive recipients of the process of evolution. To overcome this false impression and conform to the spirit of Darwin’s theory, this work proposes to supplement Darwin’s theory by introducing a will to power into it that gives Homo sapiens agency to gain power and empower themselves to survive. This achievement of empowerment has important consequences because it gives Homo sapiens an opportunity to invent religion and supernatural beings by means of their intuitive experiences, performing like natural by-products of the operation of evolution. The human body and brain play essential roles in the process of evolution and development of religion, a form of power that binds humans to transcendent powers, empowers them, unites them into enduring social units, represents one of the elements of the beginning of human culture, and enhances their chances for survival. Because of its subject matter and approach, this work includes a critical appraisal of scholars using the results of cognitive science research. Because Homo sapiens invented supernatural beings and religion, it seems irresponsible for a contemporary individual to choose to become an atheist, an option that is explored in the final chapter about whether religion has a future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anthem Press
• Release date: Jun 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9781839990526

Book preview

The Nostalgia for Origins

The Nostalgia for Origins

Religion, Evolution, Cognition and Memory

Carl Olson

Anthem Press

An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company

www.anthempress.com

This edition first published in UK and USA 2024

by ANTHEM PRESS

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© Carl Olson 2024

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested.

2024931545

ISBN-13: 978-1-83999-051-9 (Hbk)

ISBN-10: 1-83999-051-1 (Hbk)

This title is also available as an e-book.

This book is dedicated to my friends Jeffery Kripal and Bryan Rennie, fellow laborers in the vineyards of Religious Studies.

CONTENTS

Preface

1. The Prestige of Origins

2. Power and Empowerment

3. The Origins of Life, Body, Brain, and Religious Experience

4. Origins, Ritual, Agency, and Memory

5. Is There a Future for Religion?

Notes

Index

PREFACE

This book proposes to inject some new aspects into the theory of evolution and the development of the human brain. In the interests of honesty, I am neither an evolutionary scientist nor a cognitive scientist, although I will seriously and critically take into consideration their theories. My own training and approach to the study of religion is that of a historian of religion. Nevertheless, when composing this book I used material from the theory of evolution, history, phenomenology, neuroscience, archaeology, and anthropology for a multidisciplinary approach to the subject of the origin of religion.

This book proposes to examine the nature of religion by seeking its origin within the context of the theory of evolution and the development of the human brain. It is argued that religion is the way the mechanism of natural selection in the theory of evolution operates to help humans survive in the context of a dangerous and hostile world. Survival is accomplished when profound experiences like trance cause a rewiring of the brain, giving birth to what later is identified as religious attitudes and ways of behaving. It is possible to speculate that without the development of religion, humans might not have survived to create cultures and civilizations. Therefore, the development of religion makes it possible for early humans to thrive. This evolutionary process involved adaptation to one’s environment, creation of social groups, development of the body, and the brain.

There are also other neglected aspects of evolution not discussed by previous theorists. The implications of the embodied nature of human beings are not always stressed by cognitive theorists. What they more specifically tend to neglect is that human bodies are chemical factories. It is numerous chemicals created within the body that contribute to the development of religious experiences. Another neglected aspect of those influenced by the theory of evolution is that early humans exerted a will to power to survive. This so-called will to power is a process of empowerment with the goal of enabling humans to become strong and powerful enough to survive. This will to power is not something metaphysical but is rather part of the dynamic of natural selection. It is possible to think of the proposed will to power within the operation of evolution as a thought experiment with the goal of enriching the theory of evolution.

With a review of the so-called Big Bang theory about the beginning of the universe, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the quest for the birth of religion, and the cognitive contribution to this quest, the initial chapter commences a major theme of this book, namely, the importance of origins. It includes an examination of the problematic nature of religion from a comparative perspective. Pre-historical times witnessed early Homo sapiens surrounded by danger as they attempted to survive. For our human ancestors, religion was not a way to get rich or to distinguish oneself from others, it was a means of survival. This was a perfectly natural development and response to one’s hostile environment.

Hidden within Darwin’s theory of natural selection, it is possible to find a will to power, a contribution of Homo sapiens to the successful working of the evolutionary process. Without contradicting natural selection, the will to power indicates the contribution made by Homo sapiens who are not passive players, but they are rather agents with intentionality. In other words, our ancestors contributed to the success of evolution by inventing supernatural beings and religion after having profound and uncanny experiences that altered their lives and those that they influenced. It is argued that the will to power represents a process of self-empowerment that includes the development of one’s body and brain. This scenario suggests the essential development of religion in the evolutionary process. It also indicates that religion was a potential feature of evolution that was developed by Homo sapiens and was not an innate genetic possibility, although it was something natural.

The second chapter begins to build on some of the issues raised in the initial chapter like empowerment and power. A review of what Nietzsche means by the will to power serves as a context for an examination of empowerment and power. This approach includes a survey of the notion of power in various religious traditions and a review of the positions of various scholars about power. This chapter includes a look at power as an event because I want to recapture a primitive sense of power before the creation of nation states and holders of political power.

Again, the third chapter examines the theme of origins and applies it to life, body, brain, and religious experience. The chapter emphasizes the chemistry of the body and brain and how the former influences the latter. We will see that the development of religion is connected to chemical processes in the body and brain. This chapter delves into different types of religious experience and considers the contribution of various scholars discussing cognitive theories about religious experience. Then, we will consider counterpoints to the approaches of cognitive scholars. The rationale for this approach is that cognitive science offers a new methodology and conceptual ways to understand religion, and it can reveal information about evolution.

Because of their importance to cognitive theorists, the fourth chapter looks at the origins of ritual, agency, and memory. This chapter also examines associated topics like a retrospective look at the history of ritual studies in the West: rites of passage, sacrifice, and violence and nonviolence. The findings of the initial four chapters, especially the assertion that Homo sapiens invented divine beings and religion for the purpose of becoming powerful to survive, raise questions about becoming an atheist and whether or not religion has any value for people in the twenty-first century by responding to a few vocal atheists. In this final chapter, I will attempt to answer the following question: Is there a future for religion?

Keeping with the theme of this book, it should be acknowledged that the present book had its origin at Clare Hall, a postgraduate college of Cambridge University. I had the golden opportunity to discuss the Big Bang Theory with John Barrows, who has published extensively on the subject. Trips to manor homes in the English countryside with Julius Lipner and my wife was another highlight of my stay. A journey to the European mainland was an enjoyable experience, even though we discovered that the Danube River is not blue anymore. Peggy continues to perform exceptionally as my nurse and friend. I also want to thank my longtime friend and colleague Glenn Holland for help with some biblical materials. Finally, I want to thank the numerous nurses, doctors, and scientific researchers for discovering a cure for COVID-19, an epidemic that took the lives of many wonderful human beings and disrupted so many lives for a year. It sure felt great to finally hug our grandchildren after a year apart.

Chapter 1

THE PRESTIGE OF ORIGINS

Long before there was a universe, before there was human life, before there was a divine being, and before there was religion, there was vast emptiness. Some helium, hydrogen, other nuclei, and electrons arose, interacted, and eventually exploded, setting in motion elemental energy, matter, and space. If matter was stuff with mass, energy and space were spontaneously created by an event called the Big Bang,¹ a primordial occurrence that happened around 13.3 billion years ago followed by an expansion of space. As the universe expanded, the space between the galaxies continued to get larger, although at the current time nearby galaxies demonstrate a slower expansion compared to more distant galaxies. In addition to expansion, electrons combined with protons to form neutral hydrogen atoms, and electrons also combined with the helium nuclei in the universe. The Big Bang also produced equal massive amounts of positive and negative energy. As the universe expanded, it began to cool and developed the four basic forces: gravitational force, strong force, weak force, and electromagnetic force. The continued cooling resulted in the separation of the gravitational force from the others that compressed to form the grand unified theory (GUT). The continued separating and cooling led to the evolution of atoms, quarks, and electrons. These items became mixed with photons and other particles. This entire expanding universe was subject to physical laws that are unchangeable and universal. Moreover, the Big Bang marks the beginning of time. This is not time that can be measured by a clock, but it is rather cosmic time measured in millions of years.

During his professional career, Albert Eisenstein concluded that the universe was static, a mistake that he eventually recognized. Instead of a static universe, the Big Bang resulted in an expansion of the universe. Proof for this expansion has been provided by astronomers who have discovered that the galaxies of the universe are moving further away from each other. There is no plan for this expansion, which means that the universe is characterized by chance and uncertainty. Despite such characteristics, some scientists think that there are signs of intelligent life in the universe.² Even though the universe was created millions of years ago, the creation of the universe continues to the present time with more space and energy being continually created. Will the universe expand forever? Two recent scholars give different answers in their books. Roy R. Gould argues that the universe is not expanding outward to infinity, but it is rather continuing to create itself and expands inward and not outward.³ In contrast to Gould, due to an increase in the density of matter and the slowing of the expansion rate to almost zero, Tony Rothman asserts that the universe will re-collapse.⁴ After the re-collapse, Rothman perceives the universe creeping along forever.

This summary of the cosmology of modern science is a narrative without a supernatural being who created the universe despite a pattern of forces and physical laws that suggests to some observers a grand designer. It is, however, a genuine creation ex nihilo. This implies that the universe is not grounded on a single principle, reason, or divine being. It is the narrative of a great mystery that challenges the powers of the human mind to comprehend. Scientists are learning new things constantly about the universe and the earth. This mysterious narrative can be characterized as accidental, errant, or a wonder. It is also mechanistic and materialistic.

About 4.5 billion years ago, the planet earth was formed. Then, about 3.8 billion years ago, emerged organisms, starting from single-cell organisms and evolving to complex multicellular organisms. Humans parted ancestral ties with chimpanzees about 6 million years ago and about 2.5 million years ago, the genus Homo evolved in Africa and learned to use stone tools. Having evolved into different species, humans spread from Africa to Eurasia. Neanderthals roamed the earth between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago. They buried their death with adornments that some scholars interpret as possibly suggesting a belief in some type of life after death.

While Neanderthals evolved in Europe and the Middle East, they were being surpassed by Cro-Magnon figures with a brain like that of humans around 43,000 years ago. Archeological findings suggest that they may have had some type of religion because female figurines shaped by them might indicate evidence of worshipping or venerating a fertility goddess. They also painted hunting scenes on their cave walls that might be linked to hopes of success in their hunting endeavors. On the evolutionary scale, they gave way to Homo sapiens with larger brains.

Homo sapiens (wise humans) evolved in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. By this time, humans had learned how to control fire and used it to cook their food obtained by hunting and gathering and began to leave Africa around 70,000 years ago, a period that witnessed the emergence of language that enhanced communication and social cooperation. Language is an ability that sets the human brain apart from its ancestors and other animals. What distinguished humans from other animals were their large brains, which continued to develop along with bodily changes like walking erect that enabled them to see farther and changes of their hands that allowed them to grasp weapons and tools.⁵ Their brains were constantly getting rewired as they had new experiences and found ways to solve ordinary problems.

The everyday existence of Homo sapiens was precarious for good reason. Humans were not only hunters, but they were also the hunted or the targets of large predators, and they were only armed with primitive stone weapons. Because of the dangers of hunting, they hunted smaller game rather than larger animals, ate insects, gathered plants, and scavenged the remains left by larger carnivores. They also had to endure insects, disease, floods, droughts, bolts of lightning, and threats of starvation. Within the context of these dangers, Homo sapiens were driven by internal bodily urges to reproduce. Their uncertain mode of existence motivated them to find security in social alliances, although they had individual agencies that prompted them to find ways to empower themselves like developing religion. The evolutionary narrative suggests that religion was associated with larger brain size and the development of social cohesion that was advantageous for survival, although religion itself was not per se an evolutionary adaptation, being more a natural result of neurobiology and human empowerment. Less spiritual modes of agency that contributed to survival in a hostile environment were the domestication of fire and the development of farming that improved their diet and made the food supply more stable. But the lives of humans and other animals were always in flux. Thus, it was constantly necessary to adapt to changing circumstances to survive.

A reference to the Big Bang theory and early development of Homo sapiens calls attention to a major theme of this study, that is origins, which is intended to unify the study until it reaches the final chapter concerning the future prospect for religion. The notion of origin has some important implications for this study because it conveys the sense of an absolute beginning. Masuzawa observes, In origin is everything. Before origin, there is nothing.⁶ She is suggesting that we have a paradoxical notion: Origin is everything and nothing. This paradox can be unpacked by affirming that the term conveys the sense of what is absolute and eliminates any possibility that something preexists it. Darwin’s theory of evolution proposes a narrative about the origin of animals. Darwin influenced the quest for the origin of religion, which plays an important part in the theoretical work of Mircea Eliade and others. This influence can be discovered in Eliade’s theory of myth in which the cosmogonic myth has prestige because it is the paradigmatic narrative and serves as the model for all origin myths.⁷ Because it relates to a primordial event that took place at the beginning of time, the cosmogonic myth shares a sacred history, which is equivalent to revealing a mystery; it is a history that takes place in illo tempore, a recital of what the gods or the semidivine beings did at the beginning of time.⁸ In a later work, Eliade acknowledges that despite the primary importance of the origin myth the historian of religion is unable to reach or know the origin of religion.⁹

The theme of origin will take us through Darwin’s theory, the concept of religion, how cognitive scientists deal with the origin of religion, the promise of science, the problematic nature of religion, and the cross-cultural idea of religion. The second chapter covers power and empowerment, while the third chapter discusses the origins of life, body, brain, and religious experience, including a critical look at the theories of cognitive scientists. In the fourth chapter, the topics of origin, agency, ritual, and memory are considered along with the theories of cognitive scientists. The final chapter raises the question about the future of religion.

Darwin’s Revolution

Charles Darwin’s (1809–1882) theory of evolution by natural selection that appeared in his Origin of Species published in 1859 was a rare book because it altered our way of conceiving the origin of human beings and was widely influential in scientific and humanistic circles. Daniel C. Dennett, a contemporary fundamentalist disciple of Darwin, expressed high praise about the theory of evolution: Darwin’s dangerous idea is reductionism incarnate promising to unite and explain just about everything in one magnificent vision.¹⁰ Furthermore, Dennett thinks that the theory is revolutionary for science and philosophy. It was additionally influential on the concept of religion, the comprehension of the origin of religion, and the way that religion was studied by scholars. If we place Darwin’s theory in its historical context, Dennett’s assessment is accurate because it challenged Aristotelian philosophy and the Thomistic theology that was based on it. Against Aristotle’s contention that plant and animal species were eternally established and fixed within nature, suggesting a static view of life, Darwin offered something more dynamic because species were in contrast mutable. In a wider perspective, Darwin’s theory rejected other positions such as vitalism, spiritualism, essentialism, and a teleology that implied a divine plan or conclusion. Instead, Darwin’s theory offered a mechanistic process and a materialistic perspective that was devoid of any meaning and purpose.

Darwin’s theory was grounded on empirical observation gained on his five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle to South America and his journey to the South Pacific. What he saw inspired him to draw a connection between the biological features of animals and their behavior within a given environment. This connection suggested consequences for adaption, reproduction, evolution, and extinction. After reading Thomas Robert Malthus’ book on population in 1838, he conceived of the notion of natural selection, and he was also inspired by the work of Herbert Spencer (1880–1903) and his reference to survival of the fittest that Darwin adopted for his theory. In his book, Darwin referred to natural selection as a power.¹¹ Darwin attributed the origin of social instincts to natural selection.¹² In its operation, natural selection tended to prefer improved development of the body and retained these improvements for future generations. Darwin also connected the notion of natural selection to the struggle to survive.¹³

In his book, The Descent of Man (1874), Darwin turned his attention to the human species and continually compared humans to lower animals, although humans were the most dominant animal to ever appear on earth. Darwin writes, He manifestly owes his immense superiority to his intellectual faculties, to his social habit, which lead him to aid and defend his fellow, and to his corporal structure.¹⁴ Darwin submitted to readers his principle of the division of physiological labor. He offered examples of hands becoming perfected for prehension and the feet becoming perfected for support and locomotion.¹⁵ He compared the brains of lower animals with the human