Cross-cultural data show moralizing gods correlate with chronic water scarcity

Evidence

Sure enough, a study relying on a representative sample of the world’s ethnographic cultures found that gods tend to be moralizing in societies with chronic water shortages, compared with societies with abundant water supply. The results did not change if societies exposed to missionary activity were included or excluded. The pattern also held when water scarcity was the result of low levels of rainfall, and when it was the result of inadequate amounts of surface water, such as the presence of streams, rivers, and lakes. These findings nicely parallel those discussed earlier, which indicate that Big Gods are more common as group size and social complexity increases and societies risk fissure. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 422