The Evolution of Religion, Religiosity and Theology by Feierman Jay R.;Oviedo Lluis;

Author:Feierman, Jay R.;Oviedo, Lluis;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)
Published: 2019-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

Awe and Religious Meaning Systems

What does awe as a meaning-making emotion have to do with human religions? To address this issue, the relationship between religions and meaning systems first needs clarification. Meaning systems are not only possessed by individuals but also shared within communities. By drawing on a common set of beliefs, values and goals, members of a society can engage in cooperative behavior and experience positive feelings of cohesion and belonging (Bellah 2012; Echterhoff et al. 2009; Haidt 2012). Religions are among the most pervasive and organized forms of shared meaning systems. They provide a shared set of beliefs and practices that may define an entire society, and they structure the meaning systems of individuals within that society.

Stories of awe-inspiring miracles and revelations are foundational to many major religions. Beliefs about deities with the awe-inspiring characteristics of omniscience and omnipotence motivate god-fearing people to behave themselves. Religious leaders dazzle their audiences with divinely ordained charisma, inspiring them to great action (Keltner and Haidt 2003). Religious ideas are spread and reinforced through both collective rituals and individual experiences, including singular awe-inspiring events that lead to religious conversion. Experiences of awe may therefore play a prominent and perhaps fundamental role in religions. Most central to the present discussion are religious explanations of the natural world. Religious beliefs are often invoked to explain awe-inspiring natural phenomena, from coincidental rainbows to deadly hurricanes. This is true even today, although scientific explanations are available. To what extent have religious beliefs been inspired by experiences of awe?

Inherent in a state of awe is the struggle to understand something new and overwhelming. Awe-like states may have served a similar meaning-making function in our hominid ancestors. Many stimuli that commonly elicit awe in humans – including birth, waterfalls and wildfires – have also been observed to evoke awe-like states in chimpanzees (de Waal 1996; Goodall 2005). These states are characterized by novel patterns of behavior, which can potentially be understood as rudimentary meaning-making. We can only speculate at this stage (well aware of the pitfall of generating “just so stories”); still we propose the intriguing possibility that religious beliefs may have been conceived and developed during awe-like states in our hominid ancestors, who already possessed many of the social cognitive abilities that underpin religious belief and behavior in humans.

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