I have translated this article that may explain why we tend to give credit - and blame - a God who actually is innocent ... Only humans practice religion because they are the only creatures on earth that have developed the capacity of the imagination.
That is the argument of the Franco-British anthropologist Maurice Bloch of the London School of Economics. Bloch opposes the popular notion that religion evolved and spread because it promoted social bonding, as argued by some anthropologists.
Instead, he argues that first, human beings have had to evolve in brain architecture to imagine things and beings that do not physically exist, and to believe in the possibility that people - in some way, to live after have died.
Once this is achieved, humans could use what Bloch calls "social significance" and unite in groups, nations and clans, or even with imaginary groups such as the dead. The social significance also allows humans to follow the idealized codes of conduct associated with religion.
"What the social significance required is the ability live - to some extent - in the imagination, "says Bloch.
" You can be a member of a transcendental group, or nation, though never in contact with other members of the same " Bloch says. Moreover, the composition of these groups, "whether they are clans or nations, may also include the living and the dead."
Currently, this idea of \u200b\u200blinking communities living and dead, occurs in the Christian notion of being "one body with Christ" or the Islamic "Ummah" uniting Muslims.
Animals do not have this capacity of social importance, even our closest relatives, chimpanzees, says Bloch. And the reason is they can not imagine beyond the immediate social circle, or backwards and forwards in time, a capacity that humans do have.
Bloch believes our ancestors developed the necessary neural architecture to imagine before or around 40 to 50.000 years ago, at the end of the Stone Age.
At the same time, the tools used for hunting and the man who had been monotonously primitive began more sophisticated. The art began appearing on cave walls, and burials began to include objects, suggesting a belief in an afterlife, and therefore the "transcendental social".
But Bloch argues that religion is just one manifestation of this unique ability to form relationships with value systems, people do not exist or are distant.
"Once we realize this omnipresence of the imaginary in the everyday, there is nothing special to explain about religion," he says.
Chris Frith of University College London, co-organizer of the meeting "Sapient Mind" meeting in Cambridge last September, thinks Bloch is right, but that "theory of mind" - the ability to recognize that other people or creatures exist, and think for themselves, can be as important as the evolution imagination.
"As soon as you have theory of mind, it is possible to deceive others, or being tricked," he says. This, in turn, generates a sense of justice and injustice, which could lead to moral codes and the possibility of an officer of the watch "- God - who can see and punish all the wicked.
Is it true that ? If so, we must start looking for someone else to give credit and blame ...
This article is a translation of excerpts from the following sources:
- http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org / content/363/1499/2055 (original source)
- http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13782-religion-a-figment-of-human-imagination.html (citing the original article in English)
- http: / / www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/10/did-development-of-human-imagination-50000-years-ago-lead-to-belief-in-god.html (citing the original article in English)
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