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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. i.brazil@donders.ru.nl http://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. miguel.farias@coventry.ac.uk http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/areas-of-research/psychology-behaviour-achievement/
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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.

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

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