Water-scarce societies tend to develop moralizing gods

Evidence

Although both types of rituals can co-occur in a group, chances are that if one type is more prevalent, the other is less common. Doctrinal rituals are the stuff of organized religion. They are associated with greater reliance on agriculture, which in turn demands greater levels of ingroup cooperation. These agricultural societies are the ones that were historically shaped by prosocial religious groups. In contrast, rare but emotionally arousing imagistic rituals tended to occur in smaller-scale groups that are less likely to depend on agriculture, and much less likely to be associated with moralistic Big Gods. It’s not that the imagistic mode is absent from organized religion. It does occur and can galvanize and renew faith and commitment. However, the imagistic mode is less predictable, and as a result, when it occurs in prosocial religions, it is actively managed by religious authorities and tolerated only to the extent that it doesn’t challenge the central dogma or the group’s interests. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 (#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 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409; Foraging societies’ gods rarely enforce moral rules that humans themselves uphold — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 815; Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 (+4 more)

Related

• Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures (similarity 0.90)
• Foraging societies’ gods rarely enforce moral rules that humans themselves uphold (similarity 0.89)
• Elaborate rituals and monuments co-emerge with larger complex societies (similarity 0.86)
• Cross-cultural data show moralizing gods correlate with chronic water scarcity (similarity 0.86)
• Hunter-gatherer gods lacked wide moral concern and omniscience (similarity 0.85)
• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods (similarity 0.85)
• Hunter-gatherer gods are weak, morally indifferent, and self-interested (similarity 0.85)
• Moralizing gods were rare in ancestral foraging religions (similarity 0.84)
• Early hunter-gatherer gods cared about ritual, not moral behavior. (similarity 0.83)
• Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation (similarity 0.82)
• Agricultural societies correlate with doctrinal rituals; small foraging groups use imagistic ones (similarity 0.82)
• Big God belief enabled group cooperation that agriculture alone could not achieve. (similarity 0.81)
• Gods’ moral involvement grows with group size culturally (similarity 0.81)
• Hunter-gatherer religion exists entirely without moralizing deities or organized worship. (similarity 0.81)
• The religion-morality link emerged culturally and recently in history (similarity 0.81)

Broader Connections

• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods #expands (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427
• Group expansion drives religion toward moral, demanding, interventionist gods #expands (0.85)
• Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures #qualifies (0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 416
• Hunter-gatherer gods lacked wide moral concern and omniscience #contradicts (0.70) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 415