Big God belief enabled group cooperation that agriculture alone could not achieve.

Evidence

Why are interventionist and moralizing Big Gods rare in the supernatural worlds of the Hadza, the San, and most other foraging and hunting groups? The answer can be found in the evolutionary logic of cooperation that is constrained by group size. In these relatively transparent societies where face-to-face interaction is the norm, it is hard to escape the social spotlight. The bonds of family and friendship, combined with a set of cultural practices, go a along way in fostering cooperation and cementing the social matrix. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Although both types of rituals can co-occur in a group, chances are that if one type is more prevalent, the other is less common. Doctrinal rituals are the stuff of organized religion. They are associated with greater reliance on agriculture, which in turn demands greater levels of ingroup cooperation. These agricultural societies are the ones that were historically shaped by prosocial religious groups. In contrast, rare but emotionally arousing imagistic rituals tended to occur in smaller-scale groups that are less likely to depend on agriculture, and much less likely to be associated with moralistic Big Gods. It’s not that the imagistic mode is absent from organized religion. It does occur and can galvanize and renew faith and commitment. However, the imagistic mode is less predictable, and as a result, when it occurs in prosocial religions, it is actively managed by religious authorities and tolerated only to the extent that it doesn’t challenge the central dogma or the group’s interests. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409; Group size predicts Big Gods independent of stratification and missionary contact — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 418; Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 (+3 more)

Related

• Group size predicts Big Gods independent of stratification and missionary contact (similarity 0.90)
• Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation (similarity 0.88)
• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods (similarity 0.88)
• Big God religion and large-scale cooperation co-evolved in feedback (similarity 0.87)
• Big Gods and large-scale cooperation mutually reinforced each other’s expansion (similarity 0.86)
• Big God prosocial religions contributed to, not merely resulted from, large-scale societies (similarity 0.85)
• Big Gods were necessary but not sufficient for group expansion. (similarity 0.85)
• Elaborate rituals and monuments co-emerge with larger complex societies (similarity 0.85)
• Resource conflict, large groups, and watchful gods co-occur across world societies. (similarity 0.83)
• Big Gods prevalence should increase with group size (similarity 0.83)
• Big God participation raises economic game offers by 6 to 10 percentile points (similarity 0.83)
• Big Gods historically bound anonymous strangers together where courts and police were absent (similarity 0.82)
• Big Gods proliferated only where kin monitoring and reputation were insufficient (similarity 0.82)
• Water-scarce societies tend to develop moralizing gods (similarity 0.81)
• Moralizing supernatural agents help sustain cooperation at scales beyond natural limits (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Big God religion and large-scale cooperation co-evolved in feedback #expands (0.90)
• Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation #qualifies (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409
• Group size predicts Big Gods independent of stratification and missionary contact #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 418
• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427
• Hunter-gatherer gods lacked wide moral concern and omniscience #contradicts (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 415
• Large-scale cooperation and religion’s endurance explain each other #corroborates (0.75)