Pascal Boyer, Religion explained, Basic Books, ISBN: 978-0465006960

Nothing of course, is explained in the book of psychologist/antropologist Pascale Boyer, but it contains incisive analysis why religion emerged, persists and is likely to persist in human communities. The explanation will require attribution of specific religious experiences to the neurophysiology of the brain, the task, which is yet to be accomplished.

Analysis of Pascale Boyer mentions that despite extremely divergent theological and ethical premises of world religions—-and he hints how different those may be if non-European religions are included—-all contain similar and recognizable elements.

• Ritual. All religions involve repetitive behaviors, which have principal meaning for the members-initiates, while may seem senseless or even bizarre to the uninitiated.

• Sacrifice: real or symbolic.

• Special class of interlocutors between “supernatural” and human world (“specialists”, in terminology of the author), the shamans, the keepers, the priesthood.

• All religions provide intermediation between life and death.

Unusually, but I found one (and only one) human institution, which contains all four elements without being recognized as religion: namely the military, if we interpret the fourth requirement in a slightly ironic fashion.

As I have already stated, there is no "explanation" but PB shows the connection between formation of the religions and the following features of human cognition, which evolved as a result of human evolution:

• People have detailed mental representation of others, their actions and motivations.

• The concept of morality such as shared sacrifice is beneficial to society because it provides for more stable communities. Indeed, sharing food in the times of hunger, as well as physical self-sacrifice in the name of the community’s defense provides for longevity of tribal/societal association.

• Having shared cultural beliefs is necessary for society to function. For instance regular gatherings at the place of worship facilitate other exchanges and functions such as commerce or calls for communal defense. With time such gatherings, such as People’s Assemblies in Greek city-states could lose its ritual function and acquire the function of the body politic. Yet, even then religious ceremonies were considered crucial to the integrity of the body.

• Memories, which seem to have meaning are well preserved. Memories, which do not have obvious meaning—-for instance, the socks I have worn a year ago to this day—-are easily forgotten.

The author, Pascale Boyer, considers the human behaviors and features above as sufficient to create religious consciousness. Because of the intimate connection of religion with the human mind, he doubts religion will ever cease to exist.