Moralizing gods and costly rituals coevolved to boost in-group cooperation and out-compete rivals.

Evidence

I emphasize that we should be careful about interpretations of these historical data, which cannot conclusively determine causal direction. However, combining these observations with comparative ethnography, and knowing what we know about the effects of religious beliefs on social behavior, it is not unreasonable to argue that these powerful and moralizing gods likely coevolved with costly regularized rituals, creating a mutually reenforcing package capable of enhancing internal cooperation and harmony, while providing opportunities to outcompete smaller and less well-organized outgroups. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 431

Categorization

• XREF: The mutually reinforcing cooperation package maps onto the reader’s Baumard partner-choice framework and the fumi-e disruption logic. — connects to: Sacred values can form quickly through ritual and perceived group threat. — Hammad Sheikh and Jeremy Ginges and Alin Coman and Scott Atran, Religion, group threat and sacred values, 8; Sacred-value commitment produces costly sacrifice that lets weak groups beat stronger foes. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 1
• SEED: Angle: costly ritual as a locking-in mechanism that in-group solidarity relies on — and therefore what a hostile power targeting rituals accomplishes.