The religion-morality link is a recent cultural invention, not an ancient universal

Evidence

The Mahatma says that the standards I have applied to test Hindus and Hinduism are too severe, and that judged by those standards every known living faith will probably fail. The complaint that my standards are high may be true. But the question is not whether they are high or whether they are low. The question is whether they are the right standards to apply. A people and their religion must be judged by social standards based on social ethics. No other standard would have any meaning, if religion is held to be a necessary good for the well-being of the people. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1264 (#expands, via linked claim)

Sociologist Rodney Stark found that only 24 percent of the 427 cultures that anthropologists have documented in a large worldwide database acknowledge a god who is active in human affairs and is specifically supportive of human morality. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 416 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Religious worship may have driven the agricultural revolution rather than resulting from it.; Religion is an evolving family-resemblance package, not a natural kind — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 635; Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 416 (+9 more)

Related

• Some cultures may lack a distinct moral domain (similarity 0.82)
• Moralizing religion emerged recently as a rare cultural innovation (similarity 0.82)
• The religion-morality link emerged culturally and recently in history (similarity 0.82)
• Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures (similarity 0.81)
• Religions must be judged by social standards based on social ethics (similarity 0.80)
• Religions should be judged by their survival value to their nations (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures #corroborates (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 416
• Ethical religions broke kinship bonds to enable modern economic development #contradicts (0.80)
• Religions must be judged by social standards based on social ethics #expands (0.80) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1264
• Religion is an evolving family-resemblance package, not a natural kind #qualifies (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 635
• Some cultures may lack a distinct moral domain #corroborates (0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 489
• Cultural survival must not be equated with moral superiority #complicates (0.75)
• Human ultrasociality rests on cultural moral systems and reciprocity rather than kin selection. #expands (0.75) — Nowak, M. A., & Sigmund, K, Evolution of Indirect Reciprocity by…, 6
• The social scale a religion can bind grows with the deity’s remoteness #responds-to (0.75)
• Morality is an evolved sense of fairness, not a late intellectual achievement #complicates (0.70) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 656
• Human morality is contingent rather than invariant across circumstances. #corroborates (0.70) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 390