Secular institutions can replace religion’s community-building and cooperation functions

Evidence

Only recently, and only in some places, some societies have succeeded in sustaining large-scale cooperation with institutions such as courts, police, and mechanisms for enforcing contracts. In some parts of the world such as Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia, these institutions have precipitated religion’s decline by usurping its community-building functions. These societies with atheist majorities—some of the most cooperative, peaceful, and prosperous in the world—climbed religion’s ladder, and then kicked it away. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 47

And what about the secular societies of today? Only recently, and only in some places, some societies have succeeded in sustaining large-scale cooperation with institutions such as courts, police, and mechanisms for enforcing contracts. In some parts of the world such as Northern Europe, especially Scandinavia, these institutions have precipitated religion’s decline by usurping its community-building functions. These societies with atheist majorities—some of the most cooperative, peaceful, and prosperous in the world—climbed religion’s ladder, and then kicked it away. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 47

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s analytical frame: the converse of the fumi-e mechanism — here institutions substitute for religion rather than weaponizing against it. Connects to reading purpose on Big God mechanisms and their erosion. — connects to: Societal secularization and denationalization can paradoxically empower religious groups within armies — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 869; Consensus governance across diverse Tribes held together by a shared spiritual foundation — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 627
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the ‘climbed the ladder then kicked it away’ line as an account of how institutional secularism inherits religious cooperation functions — pairs well with the fumi-e case.
• DEFINE: Introduces the ‘kicked the ladder away’ thesis Norenzayan will develop — a core definitional frame for the whole book’s causal claim.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 47