During the last years, the increasingly interdisciplinary and international evolutionary studies of religiosity and religions made tremendous progress. 'Explaining Religion 2010' is an interdisciplinary conference run by the University of Bristol's Department of Philosophy and the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre which aims to integrate approaches. The event will be held at the university's beautiful Orangery  on the 2nd and 3rd of September (Thursday & Friday).

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As more and more among us start to explore the evolution of religiosity and religions from a range of scientific disciplines and nations, e.g. in the Evolutionary Religious Studies-network initiated by biologist David Sloan Wilson, I keep wondering about a peculiar fact: Why are so many dedicated evolutionists (and even declared "darwinists") ignorant or silent about Charles Darwin's own thoughts on the matter? (More)

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There are many high-fertile religious communities out there - as, for example, the Old Order Amish. Other religious groups, as the Shakers, who didn't manage (or chose) to have enough children, succumbed to (bio-)cultural evolution. In contrast, we still don't know about a single, non-religious population, movement or group that was able to retain more than two births per woman (the so-called replacement level) throughout subsequent generations. This is relevant from a sociocultural perspective: Secularization is taking place (especially among wealthy and secure populations) - but running into demographic dead ends, followed by religious-demographic revivals (through births and immigration). And it is relevant from the perspective of evolutionary studies: Intergenerational reproductive success is "the" benchmark of evolutionary fitness, promoting biocultural traits as speech, musicality - or religiosity. (More)

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For a long time, "evolutionary" puns have been an almost exclusive domain of atheists and religious critics such as Richard Dawkins and his followers. But it seems that the tide may begin to turn. Here is a new YouTube-Clip, based on demographic findings published by Eric Kaufmann, contrasting the reproductive advantage of religious people with some "memetic" assumptions of Dawkins, who assumed religious memes to function as mind parasites. And as was to be expected, the clip prompted furious and highly emotional responses - this time predominantly by critics of religion. As human beings, we are ready to enjoy puns only so long as they are aimed at the worldviews of others.

If you are interested in data about the complex interactions of religiosity and fertility, here is a sample:

*  Von Hayek and the Amish Fertility
How religious communities manage
to be fruitful and multiply – A Case study

* "The Reproductive Benefits of Religious Affiliation", in: Voland, E.; Schiefenhövel, W.: "The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behaviour", Springer Frontiers Collection 2009. 

And there are related blog posts available, e.g. on Eric Kaufmann, the high fertility of religious groups as e.g. the Amish and another clip by Tübingen biologists about the evolutionary relevance of reproductive advantages. 

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After a presentation speech of his book "Shall the Religious inherit the Earth?", (see the review by Tom Rees in "Epiphenom") Eric Kaufmann is discussing religious demographics with Dominic Lawson and Laurie Taylor.

If you are interested in more data (from an evolutionary perspective), you might want to take a look at the

* Web Resources on Religion and Reproduction

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At first glance, nothing would appear to be more different than the Amish on the one side and scientific evolutionary studies on the other. After all, the Amish are a Christian group which branched from the Mennonite Anabaptist movement in Europe during the 16th century and whose members do not seek "worldly wisdom" as e.g. higher education. But on the other hand, the Amish are actually living the very riddle of evolutionary religious studies: They are accepting numerous religious commandments and costly requirements and they had to face discrimination and prosecution throughout Europe - and they nevertheless managed to expand demographically and culturally, passing on their genes and religious-cultural traditions with extreme success. While "modern" and secular Germans and Swiss are dwindling due to the lack of children, the Old Order Amish from the same stock are thriving. How do they do that?

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To explain religious behavior is a daunting task. One very recent attempt is to explain religious behaviors and religion within an evolutionary framework. In "The Nature of God - Evolution and Religion" by editor Ulrich Frey, a range of established and young experts from various disciplines analyze religion and religiosity as phenomena in a Darwinian world. Is religiosity adaptive? Are religious people more fertile? Do we have cognitive predispositions to be religious? Are children natural believers? New answers to these questions are presented in this fascinating array of contributions from the field of evolutionary studies of religion.

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Some months ago, I introduced political sociologist Eric Kaufmann here, with whom I had the joy to share and debate some data and ideas concerning our common field of research, the reproductive potentials of religion(s). Coming from the scientific study of religion(s) and an evolutionary perspective, I was curious (and admittedly a little bit sceptical) whether it would be possible to handle the multidimensional topic in the field of contemporary politics in any meaningful way. Now I know that it is. "Shall the Religious inherit the Earth? Demography and Politics in the twenty-first Century" is a groundbreaking book about religions, demography and our future. It has the potential to change perceptions in sciences, publics and politics.



Eric starts with a discussion of theories concerning secularization and demographics. And he points out a consequence of modern demographic transition: As children are becoming a matter of economically expensive choice for more and more people and fertility rates are plummeting, pro-natalist religious traditions are gaining momentum. If you imagine a population with a median birth rate of 4 and a group of highly religious having a rate of 6, this would account for an advantage of "only" 50%, most of which could be levelled out i.e. by secularization and assimilation. But if both rates would drop collateraly by two to 2 and 4 respectively, the gap would extend to 100%, with only the highly religious population still growing. And in fact, birth rates in almost all free and wealthy societies fell below replacement level, with secular strata going down to one child per women and less. (Here, I want to add that Eric is not only right with the numbers, but with the cases studies, too. We are having lots of highly fertile religious communities but not yet a single find of a demographically stable, secular population!)

Thus, Eric notes the diverse development of three different milieus:

* Especially in wealthy and secure countries lacking extrinsic motivations for religious adherence, many people tend to abandon their religious affiliation. Secularization is taking place - but as seculars tend to have very few children, it is running into demographic dead ends. In fact, almost all secular populations are increasingly depending on immigration - which is in almost all cases bringing new religious identities into the field, i.e. growing Muslim groups to Europe.
* Moderate and mainstream religious tend to have somewhat higher birth rates than their secular neighbours. But then, they have low retention rates: Many of their children are abandoning the shallow faiths, most often secularizing.
* It's the fundamentalist movements that are combining high birth rates with high retention rates. While the moderates are torn apart between secular and fundamentalist critics, the highly devout strengthen their borders, building distinct milieus, worldviews, institutions and languages. Highly fertile groups (termed "endogenous growth sects" by Eric) as i.e. the Amish, the Hutterites or orthodox Jews may even chose not to proselytize in order to protect their demographically expanding community structures.

Going through the USA (i.e. highly fertile Christians as the Amish or the Quiverfull movement), the Muslim world (with plummeting birth rates and forming salafist communities), Europe (with a secularly shrinking native population and growing fringe and immigrant groups) and - especially convincing - Israel (with a shrinking secular or moderate majority pincered by the exponential growth of ultra-orthodox Jews and religious Muslims), Eric is emphasizing the observable processes by sound research and data.

And an avowed secular himself, the author is repeatedly discussing the consequences, dangers and options of the development gaining momentum by the day. Those daring to face these well-written pages will get a fresh perspective on everyday politics, from the local to the global level. John Gray endorsed the book by the citation: "Brilliant and provocative... a book every liberal should read". I would just like to add: "And everyone interested in sciences, religions, politics and thoughts has to read it - quickly!"

Links:

* At the blog of his rightfully proud father is an interview with Eric Kaufmann about his new book available. 

* "Shall the Religious inherit the Earth?" on wikireligiosus

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Living in Europe, it is rather easy to assume that people around the world would share a perspective on the evolution of our species. But as I learned from some comments and mails, this is not the case. Therefore, I decided to present the scientific standard of knowledge about the evolution of homo sapiens before proceeding with the specific topic of the evolution of our religiosity and religions.

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Is there an unbridgeable enmity between science(s) and religion(s) - or will they reconvene as in concepts of evolutionary theism? From the perspective of evolutionary studies of religion, that's less of a philosophical question than an empirical one. COULD it happen may be a question of fruitless speculation. But DOES it happen is a question of scientific observation.

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For a long time, evolutionary studies have been dominated by Western male scientists. Maybe it is not that surprising that their main hypotheses about the specific pathways of our hominid ancestors focussed on competition, hierarchies, warfare, weapon-and-tool-making and hunting. Unfortunately, the most obvious differences between our species and our primate relatives went largely unnoticed: No chimpanzee or orang-utan could entrust her children e.g. to a birthday party or kindergarten in the hands of non-kin others (the biological term being "alloparental care" - childcare beyond mother and father). Their offspring would risk to be attacked and killed. Therefore, other primate mothers tend to carry and shield their offspring for longer stretches of time, which led to extended spans between births wile restricting times of childhood.

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Just reading "On the Origin of Stories. Evolution, Cognition and Fiction" by Brian Boyd, I would like to reflect about our human propensity to present facts in the form of narratives. In a sense, that seems to be a very basic universal, with those of us religious just extending the stories into the supernatural realms of mythology. For example, Richard Dawkins offered a retelling of the evolutionary process as "The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution", quite obviously adopting religious terminology. From the very beginnings of scientific biology, scientists began to marvel at the "glory in plants".

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Now, the Darwin Year is over. In a sense, sadly so. It has been full of surprises. Think of it: How many people expected it to run as a kind of a climax in the Culture Wars between (some) Evolutionists and (some) religious Fundamentalists. But then, surprising things happened: Christian preachers as e.g. Michael Dowd thanked God for Evolution and more and more atheists, agnostics and believers discovered together, that evolutionary studies were a splendid way to discover new facts about religiosity and religions, building a new and shared, scientific perspective on the matter.

As I have done on the German Scilogs, I decided to endorse three very special books that helped to pave the way for a better understanding of evolution and religion(s).

1. Voland, Schiefenhövel (Eds.): The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

It is an expensive piece of scientific jewellery. And I am amazed everytime, when I browse and read through it. 19 chapters of evolutionary studies on religion, each a unicum in itself. There is e.g. the Chinese contribution in Neuropsychology of religious belief by Shihui Han or the multi-dimensional American theory about the "Where", "When" and "Why" of the Evolution of Religion (Matt Rossano). There is the captivating cross-check of evolutionary theories with ethnological observations in Melanesia (Wulf Schiefenhövel) and... well, see for yourself the list of contents!

As I had been part of the Delmenhorst-conference about Biology of Religion back in 2007, I had been impressed by the sheer, interdisciplinary dynamics of a bunch of courageous scholars. With "TBEoRMB", Eckart Voland and Wulf Schiefenhövel not only managed to distill this event, but to expand upon it. Although the book may be too special and too expensive to get a wider audience, it will sure be treasured (and used) by those dedicated to evolutionary studies of religion far beyond the Darwin Year.

2. Schaller, Norenzayan et al. (Eds.): Evolution, Culture, and the Human Mind

Well, the cognition and culture institute got the flair of this impressive and broad tome: "An enormous amount of scientific research compels two fundamental conclusions about the human mind: The mind is the product of evolution; and the mind is shaped by culture. These two perspectives on the human mind are not incompatible, but, until recently, their compatibility has resisted rigorous scholarly inquiry. Evolutionary psychology documents many ways in which genetic adaptations govern the operations of the human mind. But evolutionary inquiries only occasionally grapple seriously with questions about human culture and cross-cultural differences. By contrast, cultural psychology documents many ways in which thought and behavior are shaped by different cultural experiences. But cultural inquires rarely consider evolutionary processes. Even after decades of intensive research, these two perspectives on human psychology have remained largely divorced from each other. But that is now changing - and that is what this book is about." It is divided into three parts (1. How Evolution and Culture Fit Together., 2. Evolutionary Bases of Cultural Phenomena., 3. Evolutionary Universals and Cross-Cultural Differences.) with international and intercultural teams adressing these in captivating studies and chapters. Of course, I especially appreciated:
*S. Solomon, J. Greenberg, T. Pyszczynski, F. Cohen, D.M. Ogilvie, Teach these Souls to Fly: Supernatural as Human Adaptation.
* A.F. Shariff, A. Norenzayan, J. Henrich, The Birth of High Gods: How the Cultural Evolution of Supernatural Policing Influenced the Emergence of Complex, Cooperative Human Societies, Paving the Way for Civilization.
But other chapters e.g. about social selection or Baumeister's The Human Mind and the Evolution of Cultural Animals offered food for (scientific) thought for years to come.

3. Robert Wright: The Evolution of God

Although Wright featured the E-word in the title, his book (sadly) doesn't recourse on many contemporary studies e.g. about the biological bases or biocultural effects of religiosity. Instead, Wright is presenting and discussing the cultural evolution of religions in the framework of Game theory. Well written, I have seen that some of my students and colleagues new to the field found Wright's approach very accessible and convincing. What's more, it's offering some ethnological and historical insight in the recent evolution of religious behavior and religions. If you are seeking a book for introducing someone in the perspective of evolutionary studies on religion without risk of drowning in divergent theories, Wright's book is a very good choice.

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For some years, a range of empirical studies (e.g. Inglehart & Norris in "Sacred and Secular", 2004) confirmed a global correlation of religiosity to societal levels of want and income inequality and (especially) insecurity. As respective publications have been made available at the internet for free, a wider public is getting the message. E.g., a sound example of a well-done study has been published by Tom Rees in the Journal of Religion and Society.

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As I did my doctorate thesis about religion & brain sciences in 2003 to 2005, it was possible to get an overview over the main body of relevant literature, although I had to invest some hundred Euros on books not yet available in libraries. But since then, there has been a tremendous growth of scientific publications concerning the evolution of religiosity and religions, ranging from archaeology to political sciences, from (evolutionary and cultural) psychology to sociology right into the various branches of (socio-, micro-, behavioral-, neuro- etc.)biology, theology, philosophy and many, many more.

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