288 The Process of Evolution 



observed differences between living and dead human beings, the 

 assumption being that the absence of breathing and lowering of the 

 body temperature result from the desertion of the body by a spirit. 

 This seemingly logical assumption combined with, among other 

 things, dreams and ignorance of the forces of the physical world, is 

 thought to be the basis of all religions. The elaboration of these or 

 other simple ideas into the complex pattern of religions that we 

 have today was a long and complicated process. It seems eminently 

 fair to say that, even with the flourishing of science in the last few 

 centuries, man's creation of spirits, gods, and the related para- 

 phernaha of religion has had the most far-reaching effects of any 

 cultural phenomenon. In most societies of the past and in the ma- 

 jority of societies today, organized systems of religion provide the 

 principal means for the individual to orient intellectually to his 

 physical and cultural surroundings. Among other things, such sys- 

 tems of orientation make it very difficult for the individual to ap- 

 preciate the outlook of members of other societies. 



Most people in every culture believe that their own way of doing 

 things is, in some absolute sense, right. They are unaware, or at 

 most only dimly aware, of their own biological and cultural history. 

 They do not understand why they love their children, why the sun 

 comes up in the morning, or why they must hate their country's 

 enemies. They accept the dicta of their culture without question. 

 The acceptance of these dicta at one point in time and space may 

 well have added to the viability of the culture. At another point the 

 same set of values may be suicidal. 



Many of the important rules for living in our culture are believed 

 by some to have been handed down from heaven a mere few thou- 

 sand years ago. Most of them probably trace to the time when human 

 beings gave up a nomadic hunting and food-gathering way of life 

 and, with the invention of agriculture, began to settle down in 

 rather large organized groups. There were numerous advantages to 

 living in such groups, among them cooperative defense, the ability 

 to carry out projects requiring a great deal of manpower, and the 

 opportunity for specialization into various trades and professions. 

 For groups of any size, from family on up, to enjoy the fruits of co- 

 operation, internal strife must be kept at a minimum. Thus, for 

 instance, intergroup selection favored those groups that suppressed 

 killing within the group. One logical way to do this was for the 

 elders to tell the young that kilhng a member of the in-group would 

 offend the spirits, and indeed that is essentially the way it is done 

 today in our own society. It should be noted carefully that, in spite 

 of constant reiteration of "Thou shalt not kill," our society allows 



