I read an article in no 2936 NewScientist, and so I cannot link it.

It was a review on a new book: Big Gods: How religion transformed cooperation and conflict by Ara Norenzayan

The highlights:

"In the beginning there were many Gods."

"How, out of this pantheon, did a handful of monotheistic and polytheistic faiths come to dominate?"

" He [AN] argues that Islam, Christianity and other world religions prospered because..they alone offered all knowing, interventionist deities who judged immoral behavior, an arrangement that encouraged cooperation among large groups of strangers - because "watched people are nice people".

He asks why "atheists are so profoundly distrusted - rather than simply disliked or ignored."

His answer: "To the faithful, those who don't believe in divine monitoring cannot be expected to act morally."

But also " prejudice against atheists diminishes in nations with strong state institutions...the rule of law can be as effective as supernatural power at ensuring cooperation and accountability."

"Some of the most cohesive and peaceful societies are also the least religious." "No longer requiring their big gods to sustain large scale cooperative behavior, they have effectively outgrown them."
"This does not explain why the US, one of the most economical developed countries in the world, is still among the most religious..."


So, in the beginning were many gods, they developed into one god in many places (the polytheistic went out the the article from there) this meant more cohesive societies where large amounts of people cooperate with each other because god is looking over their shoulder and for no other reason, adn this means civilization.

Atheists are feared for that reason - that they have no god looking over their shoulder and so must behave abominably.

In countries with strong laws no gods are needed to keep people behaving morally.

But cohesive and peaceful but non-religious societies represents the next step: they have outgrown the gods, in some sort of Darwian development.

However, against that theory stands the fact that the US is one of the most religious nations in the world.

Talk about online behavior:

"This is what happens when people evade both big gods and secular eyes. If watched people are nice, the unwatched can be the nastiest of all."

I would be very interested in what you all make of this?