Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods

by E Fuller Torrey

  Thus, 4,500 years ago, Mesopotamians in Uruk, the largest city in the world, worshiped the goddess Inanna in her temple. Egyptians marveled at the Great Pyramid of Giza, built to honor Pharaoh Khufu, the representative of the gods; the pyramid would be the world’s tallest manmade structure for 3,800 years. In Pakistan the Harappan civilization was at its peak, and the 40,000 residents of Mohenjo-daro visited what may have been temples for honoring gods. In western Europe, large groups of people gathered at what appear to be ceremonial centers at Brodgar, Stonehenge, and Avebury. At Caral in Peru, large platform mounds, some 100 feet in height, accommodated large crowds for some kind of ceremonial function, probably involving deities. And by 4,300 years ago, a similar platform mound was built in China.

  Thus, by about 4,500 years ago, modern Homo sapiens was emerging as the theistic hominin, and a belief in gods has continued to be one of our defining characteristics. More effectively than animal spirits or ancestor spirits, the gods provided answers for natural phenomena and philosophical questions for thousands of years. Where does the sun go at night? Why does the moon change shape? Why do the stars move? What causes wind and rain, thunder and lightning, floods and droughts? Where did the world come from? Why am I here? And especially, what will happen to me after I die? The presence of the gods has been enormously comforting as we have continued to dutifully cross the stage of life, going about our daily tasks, yet knowing that Pale Death was waiting in the wings. To have been accompanied on life’s journey by the symbolic and monumental props of the gods has been a continuing and reassuring source of solitude. Such props quiet the inner voices that whisper about the inevitable end of life’s drama. The Stygian shore beckoned uneasily 4,500 years ago, as it still does today.

  THE EMERGENCE OF MAJOR RELIGIONS

  The gods themselves, however, are not the end of the story. As we saw in Mesopotamia, once the gods emerged, they were adopted by the government and assumed some judicial, social, economic, and even military responsibilities. The sacred and secular, gods and governments, developed together. French sociologist Émile Durkheim claimed that “nearly all great social institutions were born in religion.” British historian Arthur Toynbee similarly asserted that “the great religions are the foundation on which great civilizations rest.” The relationship between the gods and governments would thus partly determine the shape of subsequent emerging civilizations.67

  Between 4,000 and 2,800 years ago, the Mesopotamian city-states fell into disarray and were defeated by the Assyrians. The chief Assyrian god, Ashur, was married to Kishar, and together they gave birth to Anu, the sky god; Ea, the god of water and wisdom; and the gods of the underworld. The Assyrians competed for supremacy in southwest Asia with the Babylonians, whose chief god, Marduk, had originally been a fertility and warrior god. As the chief god, Marduk appointed the sun and moon to their proper places in the sky. The Hittites then became the dominant power in this region 3,431 years ago, following the sack of Babylon. Their chief god was Teshub, the god of storms and battle, who was married to Hepat, the sun goddess. At Yazilikaya, in central Turkey, one can see stone carvings of Teshub and Hepat leading a procession of other Hittite gods and goddesses.

  In Egypt, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom extended their hegemony over Nubia in the south, and as far as Syria in the north. This was the peak of the Egyptian empire. The same gods continued to be worshiped except for a 17-year period during the reign of Amenhotep IV. He changed his name to Akhenaten and tried to replace Egypt’s traditional polytheism with the monotheistic worship of Ra, the sun god, whom Akhenaten called Aten. This period is often cited as the world’s first-known example of monotheistic belief. Following Akhenaten’s death, his son, Tutankhamun, and the succeeding pharaohs restored the worship of the traditional Egyptian pantheon.

  In Pakistan, the Harappan civilization went into decline, in part because of an incursion by Aryan invaders from Iran and Afghanistan. The Aryans spread into northern India, where between 3,700 and 3,100 years ago they composed the Rig Veda, which later became a cornerstone of both Hinduism and Buddhism. The Rig Veda described many gods, including Indra, a fertility god; Yama, the god of the dead; Agni, the fire god; Varuna, the sky god; and Surya, the sun god, who has a swastika as a symbol.

  In southeastern Europe, the Old Europe civilization also went into decline, but other civilizations arose. Chief among these was the Minoans, who established a civilization on Crete that achieved its peak approximately 3,600 years ago. The Minoans had few gods but rather a pantheon of goddesses, including those with responsibility for fertility, the harvest, animals, and the underworld. In Crete, the Minoan civilization was supplanted by the Mycenaeans, who invaded from the Greek mainland. The Mycenaeans had developed their own civilization, which included many gods, including Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and Dionysus. These gods were adopted by the Greeks several centuries later, when they developed their own religion.

  In China, the Shang dynasty united large parts of the Yellow River Valley and north central plains for more than 600 years. During this time, writing was independently invented and the first Chinese cities built. The chief god, Shang Di, was the god of agriculture and controlled the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.

  In Peru, a temple was built 2,940 years ago at Chavin de Huántar, located at 10,400 feet in the Andes. The temple housed the chief deity of the Chavin religion, which dominated central and northern Peru. The deity, referred to as the Lanzón, was a 15-foot-tall white granite figure that stood at the end of a narrow stone corridor. According to Richard Burger, the Yale University archeologist who excavated this temple:

  The deity depicted by the Lanzón is strongly anthropomorphic. Its arms, ears, legs, and the five-digit hands with opposing thumbs are those of a human.… The large upper incisors or fangs that emerge from the upturned or snarling mouth of the deity are particularly noteworthy.… The eyebrows and hair of the Lanzón are shown as swirling snakes and its headdress consists of a column of fanged feline heads.… The restricted access into the Gallery of the Lanzón bespeaks an inaccessible, powerful and dangerous god.68

  The Chavin temple is of special interest because it has “an elaborate maze of small vents and drains.” University of Florida archeologist Michael Moseley has suggested that “by flushing water through the drains, then venting the sound into the chambers and out again the temple could, quite literally be made to roar! If this were the case the ceremonial center would certainly have seemed other-worldly to the devoted multitudes assembled in front of it.”69

  THE AXIAL AGE

  Beginning 2,800 years ago, the final phase in the emergence of gods and religions as we know them began. The world had profoundly changed. The five million modern Homo sapiens who had existed at the beginning of the agricultural revolution had increased to between 200 and 300 million. By means of economic and military conquests, people were becoming consolidated into increasingly larger political units. For example, in China the Shang and then the Zhou dynasties united large territories and populations. In southwest Asia, the Neo-Assyrian empire ruled over southwest Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, and part of Saudi Arabia. That empire would be surpassed by the Persian Empire and then by the empire of Alexander the Great, who ruled over a territory that stretched from Greece to the Himalayas.

  Great empires require great gods and great religions. The original gods of natural forces, life, and death that had been adequate for Mesopotamian and Egyptian cities 3,000 years before were no longer adequate for empires spanning millions of people in multiple ethnic groups. Just as governance had to be systematized to cover the new world order, so did the gods and religions, since they are an integral part of such governance. Those doing the governing derived part of their authority from the gods.

  Thus was born the “axial age,” a 600-year period from 2,800 to 2,200 years ago (800 to 200 BCE). During this period, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism were all born, the latter subsequen
tly giving rise to Christianity and Islam. Together, these religions provide spiritual sustenance to 60 percent of people currently alive. Other religions, such as the religion of ancient Greece, also came into existence during this period but subsequently died out; their gods now reside in museums rather than in temples.70

  During the axial age, Confucius, Lao Tsu, many authors of the Upanishads, Buddha, Elijah, Second Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all lived. Indeed, the lives of Confucius, Buddha, and Second Isaiah even overlapped in time. The period was designated as the axial age by German philosopher Karl Jaspers, because, he said, it represented an “axis in history.” “All the vast developments of which these names are a mere intimation,” said Jaspers, “took place in those few centuries, independently and almost simultaneously in China, India and the West.” British philosopher John Hick noted that during the axial age, “all the major religious options, constituting the major possible ways of conceiving the ultimate, were identified and established and … nothing of comparably novel significance has happened in the religious life of humanity since.” French philosopher Eric Weil added that during this period the Judaic and Greek civilizations acquired their distinctive shapes, and “other civilizations, practically without contact with, and certainly not influenced by, our nascent thought systems show astonishingly parallel developments.” Karen Armstrong, in A History of God, similarly observed that during the axial age “people created new ideologies that have continued to be crucial and formative.” “For reasons we do not entirely understand,” she added, “all the chief civilizations developed along parallel lines.”71

  In surveying the development of these religions, five aspects of them are noteworthy. First, all of them offered an answer to the problem of death. An inscription on Babylon’s Royal Way assured its citizens that “Marduk, my Lord, gives eternal life.” This principle was summarized by William James in his classic study of religion a century ago: “The first difference which the existence of a God ought to make would, I imagine, be personal immortality, and nothing else. God is the producer of immortality; and whoever has doubts of immortality is written down as an atheist without further trial.” Four hundred years earlier, Martin Luther had stated it similarly: “If you believe in no future life, I would not give a mushroom for your God.”72

  Second, major religions provide other benefits in addition to offering a solution to the dilemma of death. Such benefits include the psychological support that accompanies group membership as well as such benefits as physical protection, social services, and access to jobs or economic advancement. Indeed, the psychological and social benefits of some religions may become so prominent that such benefits may appear to have been the origin of the religions. From a sociological perspective, it may even appear that gods are “far from necessary, where human religion is concerned,” as Robert Bellah has argued.73

  Third, as noted earlier, major religions usually develop in conjunction with the political governance of the people. The sacred and the secular develop hand in hand and are often inseparable. Thus, in Mesopotamia the temples of the gods controlled the workshops and trade on which the economy was built. In addition, the political leaders allied themselves with the gods and, in some cases, claimed to have semidivine or even divine status. Nineteenth-century German leader Otto von Bismarck noted this principle when he observed: “The statesman’s task is to hear God’s footsteps marching through history, and to try to catch on to His coattails as He marches past.”74

  Fourth, religions are continuously emerging, and the success or failure of each is largely determined by the economic, political, or military success of its adherents. Buddhism and Christianity, for example, became world religions largely because they were initially embraced by, respectively, Ashoka, the emperor of India, and Constantine, the emperor of Rome. Conversely, the Greek religion, although initially a major world religion, did not survive, because following the death of Alexander in 323 BCE, the Greek city-states underwent endless civil wars that weakened them politically and reduced their gods to shadows of their former selves. Then, when the apostle Paul began preaching Christianity to the Greeks, Jesus offered a solution to the problem of death that was significantly more attractive than that offered by Zeus.

  Finally, the emergence of new religions occurs primarily by borrowing gods and theology from older religions. For example, among the deities of ancient Greece, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, is thought to have come from Cyprus and to have been “brought to Greece by sea-traders.” The Cypriots, in turn, are thought to have borrowed her from Assyria and Phoenicia, where she was Astarte; Babylonia, where she was Ishtar; and, prior to that, Mesopotamia, where she was Inanna. Similarly, the Greek figure of Adonis, the handsome man beloved by Aphrodite, had previously been a major deity in Phoenicia, where a large temple was built to him at Byblos. Prior to that he is thought to have been borrowed from Babylonia, where he was Tammuz, and Mesopotamia, where he was Dumuzi. The idea of borrowing gods is not a new one. Herodotus, a Greek traveler and historian, noted 2,400 years ago that “gods in different religious systems and with different names and attributes actually had very similar functions,” and he specifically conjectured that “the Persians had borrowed the worship of Aphrodite from the Assyrian cult of Astarte.”75

  Just as gods were often borrowed, so too were religious ideas. For example, the Judeo-Christian religion is thought to have taken its ideas for the creation of man, the Great Flood, and the Tower of Babel from the Mesopotamian religion. Similarly, during their exile in Babylon beginning in 587 BCE, the Israelites were exposed to the Zoroastrian religion, with its all-powerful Ahura Mazda. After the Israelites returned to Judah, the idea of an all-powerful, monotheistic god became prominent in the Old Testament for the first time. Other ideas that may have been borrowed from Zoroastrianism include the concept of a “saoshyant,” or savior, who would appear “at intervals in the history of the world when it was in danger of such moral degeneration that it might seem that it had fallen finally to the forces of evil.” The final savior would be the one to usher in the Day of Judgment, when “each person’s good deeds would be weighed against their evil ones.” Zoroastrian followers were also taught that three of the saviors would be born to virgins but fathered by Zoroaster, the founder of this religion.76

  The axial age was thus the culmination of a remarkable period in the evolution of modern Homo sapiens. In a mere 4,000 years, the first gods and civilizations emerged, spread rapidly, and were followed by the formation of all of the world’s major religions. Robin Dunbar once noted that “religion is the one phenomenon in which we humans really are different in some qualitative sense from our ape cousins,” and asked: “Why is it that, uniquely in the Animal Kingdom, religion has such a stranglehold over our species?” The answer is that we are not only clever, aware, empathic, and self-reflective; we also have an autobiographical memory that allows us to integrate our past as we contemplate our future. This has made us, in the words of Karen Armstrong, Homo religiosus.77

  The dilemma of death was an inevitable consequence of the evolution of the human brain, but gods and religions have provided us with a solution to this innate and infinite dilemma. In doing so, it has made humans into hybrids—half mortal and half immortal. Ernest Becker captured this contradiction in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book The Denial of Death when he called humans “gods with anuses”: “Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever. It is a terrifying dilemma to be in and to have to live with.”78

  8

  OTHER THEORIES OF THE ORIGINS OF GODS

  What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to m
e, what is this quintessence of dust?

  —William Shakespeare, Hamlet

  Speculation regarding the gods has been ongoing for as long as gods have existed.

  Indeed, the gods were prominent in The Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the earliest surviving works of literature. Such speculation has become increasingly prominent in the past two decades, especially in Europe, where only 21 percent of people “say that God plays an important role in their lives.”1

  This book has offered an evolutionary approach to the gods, an approach originally suggested by Charles Darwin. “A belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies seems to be universal,” he noted, “and belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the belief in the existence of one or more gods.” However, before this could happen, according to Darwin, a “considerable advance in the reasoning powers of man” had to occur.2

  Using neuroscience studies not, of course, available to Darwin, chapters 1 through 5 describe five major advances in “the reasoning powers of man.” As hominin brains grew in size and developed increasingly strong connections among various brain areas, we acquired intelligence, an ability to think about ourselves, an ability to think about what others were thinking (theory of mind), and then an introspective ability to think about ourselves thinking about ourselves. Finally, about 40,000 years ago, we acquired an autobiographical memory, an ability to project ourselves backward and forward in time in a way not previously possible. We had become modern Homo sapiens.

  The ability to project ourselves backward and forward in time profoundly affected the thinking of modern humans, since it allowed us to foresee our own deaths. Edward B. Tylor, a contemporary of Darwin, suggested that, in our quest to understand death, we identified the loss of the soul or spirit as the critical difference between life and death. Our new ability to integrate past, present, and future also enabled us to give meaning to our dreams in ways not previously possible. As Tylor noted, we experienced visits by deceased ancestors in our dreams and thus concluded that dead spirits continue to exist in an afterlife. This inevitably led to attempts to enlist and propitiate these spirits.