The religion-morality link emerged culturally and recently in history

Evidence

In this chapter, I argue that this connection between morality and religion, taken for granted in modern world religions, has in fact emerged culturally over human history, probably rather recently. If true, this should be a startling fact that begs for an explanation. As I emphasized in chapter 1, we now live in a world where the vast majority of human beings are the cultural descendants of Big Gods. If modern hunter-gatherer groups clue us to the ancestral conditions, even in a limited and oblique fashion, then we can conclude that these beliefs started as rare forms of cultural beliefs. If so, then how did we get here from there? What role did this cultural change play in the growth and stabilization of large-scale cooperation? — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 400

Categorization

• QUESTION: Chapter frames the central puzzle — how rare amoral forager gods became moralizing Big Gods — that the remainder presumably answers with the seven principles.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 400
• XREF: connects to: Secularism as state doctrine emerged from linking personal morality to legislative social reconstruction; The worldwide major religions began as obscure local cultural experiments — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 40