How Social Science Has Explained Religion and A New Approach

Imagine you are in Las Vegas, Nevada in the United States and are attending the Penn and Teller Magic Show.  During the show, Penn and Teller seemingly turn a live chicken into a person in a gorilla suit (they also did this same trick on The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon).  The crowd shows signs of amazement and erupts into cheers and applause.  And, even though the vast majority of those in the theater have no idea how Penn and Teller just did that, the room is filled with positive emotion.

One widely used explanation (referred to here as the Intellectual Psychological explanation) of religious behavior would posit that not being able to explain how Penn and Teller turned a live chicken into a person in a gorilla suit would make the theater goers uncomfortable and anxious.  So uncomfortable in fact, that they would be satisfied with believing a supernatural explanation in order to alleviate the discomfort caused by a lack of knowledge.  Penn and Teller would likely be out of a job if people’s lack of knowledge always caused discomfort and anxiety.

In this chapter you will be introduced to popular social science explanations for the purpose and function of human participation in religious behaviors.  These include the aforementioned Intellectual Psychological, as well as what will be referred to as the Sociological and Emotional Psychological explanations.  It’s important to note that on top of other logical inconsistencies, all of these popular explanations also rely on belief, a non-verifiable variable, when examining the function of religious behavior.

Once these other explanations have been discussed, you will be introduced to an evolutionary framework that is based on identifiable behaviors and falsifiable hypotheses.  It also addresses the questions of why religious behavior seems to be a human universal, what advantages did it give our ancestors in the evolutionary past, and why it continues to persist today.