What is the importance of religion? (part-2)

This level of complexity in different societies is then compared with reports and documents on religious beliefs in 30 different regions. The study found that in all the societies of these 30 regions, religious beliefs were associated with the satisfaction of the supernatural being through religious observances. In 10 of these regions, there is no evidence of a moral God before the advent of colonial power. Belief in a moral God may have originated locally in the other 20 regions, but it appeared in those regions an average of 400 years after the advent of the writing system. If a moral God had appeared before the invention of the writing system, such a moral-based view of God would have been recorded in the first ancient documents of those societies. The earliest example of the concept of a moral God is found in Egypt in 2600 BC. But long before that, Egyptian civilization had begun. The author mentions in the research paper that after Egypt in 2600 BC, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, China, India, Persia gradually saw the emergence of moral gods, but large societies and civilizations were formed in these places long before the emergence of such concepts of God. The number of circles here shows how many thousands of years ago the concept of a moral God appeared in different regions. Pink refers to Zoroastrianism, Orange refers to Abrahamic religion, Yellow refers to other moralizing High God based religions, Blue refers to Buddhism, Purple refers to other broad supernatural punishment religions, Gray refers to the lack of a moral God.

The change in the characteristics of religion with social complexity is graphed in this study (shown below). Here, with the increasing complexity of the society, the issue of religious behavior of the people or the two conditions of religion has come up. It has been observed that doctrinal rituals or formal religious rites are born when the social complexity was less after the formation of the society. These can be described by scriptures or in different provisions. These religious rites were routinely observed, and the people followed these religious rites and rules. It cannot be said that such a doctrinal ritual has resulted in the formation of a large society. Rather, it is the complexity of this society that has determined the emergence of such doctrinal ritual-based religions in society. This study indicates that these doctrinal rituals were the reason for the establishment of large religious identities among the people. This doctrinal ritual-based religion existed for an average of 1,100 years in all societies before the advent of the concept of moral God. As can be seen from the graphs below, the emergence of a Moralizing God or Moral God occurs at one stage as social complexity continues to increase in the course of social evolution. It is seen that at a stage when the complexity of the society increases, the religions change and the concept of moral God emerges, that is, the concept of punishment or reward, karma, etc. enters the human being in the hereafter. Here the relationship between doctrinal ritual and the concept of a moral God with social complexity as an average of the calculations of different regions is highlighted. The diagram shows that the doctrinal ritual-based religion was born at a stage of increasing social complexity after the formation of Kikare society, and then the emergence of a moral God-based religion after achieving even higher social complexity.

The authors of the study conclude that the concept of a moral God was not necessary for the formation of society. This study shows us that the idea of ​​a moral God was not a prerequisite for social complexity and the formation of a larger society, but that social complexity and the larger society were a prerequisite for the concept of a moral God. The study shows us how changes in society have led to changes in people's beliefs, and people have gradually become more convinced of the concept of a moral God than of an immoral God. The various features of religion, such as moral God, are in fact a product of certain social conditions in the course of social evolution, and religious morality or the concept of moral God has also been created in this way. This discovery challenges the need for a “moral religion” with such a moral God in our present society. Religion was not a prerequisite for society, but society is a prerequisite for religion, and with the change in the structure of society in the course of social evolution, the nature of human religion has changed, is, and will continue to be.