cooperation and conflict

Today's issue of Current Biology includes a special theme section on cooperation and conflict. In my contribution to the section, I looked at a phenomenon that has the remarkable ability to cause both cooperation and conflict on a massive scale, namely religion. Starting from a recent investigation into the timing of the origins of religions with moralising high gods, and also going deeper into the past, where religious beliefs were somewhat less intrusive, I've tried to explore when, how and why humans started to evolve religions.

The resulting feature is out now:

Uncovering the roots of religion

Current Biology Volume 29, issue 11, pages R426-R429, June 03, 2019

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Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque: Colonade and Reflecting Pool (photo: Andrew Moore)

UPDATE 8.8.2023: The Nature paper on Big Gods which I discussed in the feature (Whitehouse et al. 2019) was eventually retracted and republished in an improved version as a "Retake": H. Whitehouse et al.: Religion, Brain & Behavior (2023) 13, 124-166