Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:03:51.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why would anyone want to believe in Big Gods?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2016

Inti A. Brazil  and
Miguel Farias
Inti A. Brazil
Affiliation:
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, 6500 HE Nijmegen, The Netherlands. [email protected]://www.ru.nl/donders/ Pompestichting, 6503 CK Nijmegen, The Netherlands. http://www.pompestichting.nl/
Miguel Farias
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement, Coventry University Priory Street, CV1 5FB, United Kingdom. [email protected]://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/psychology-behaviour-achievement/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We suggest an alternative explanation for the emergence of Big Gods that places less emphasis on the role of cognitive tendencies and selection of prosocial cultural variants. Instead, we argue that the fundamental motivation to reduce uncertainty and increase long-term predictability provides a better account for the rise of Big moralizing Gods in a complex and heavily regulated social environment.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e7
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ano, G. G. & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005) Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology 61(4):461–80. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20049.Google Scholar
Everett, D. (2008) Don't sleep, there are snakes: Life and language in the Amazonian jungle. Profile.Google Scholar
Farias, M., Newheiser, A., Kahane, G. & de Toledo, Z. (2013) Scientific faith: Belief in science increases in the face of stress and anxiety. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49(6):1210–13. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2013.05.008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frazier, J. (2013) Hinduism. In: The Oxford Handbook of Atheism, ed. Bullivant, S. & Ruse, M., pp. 367–79. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Friston, K. (2010) The free-energy principle: A unified brain theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11(2):127–38. doi: 10.1038/nrn2787.Google Scholar
Kay, A. C., Whitson, J. A., Gaucher, D. & Galinsky, A. D. (2009) Compensatory control: Achieving order through the mind, our institutions, and the heavens. Current Directions in Psychological Science 18:264–68. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01649.x.Google Scholar
Rutjens, B., van Harreveld, F. & van der Pligt, J. (2013) Step by step: Finding compensatory order in science. Current Directions in Psychological Science 22(3):250–55. doi: 10.1177/0963721412469810.Google Scholar
Wilson, C. (2008) Epicureanism at the origins of modernity. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar