Where are the Most Moralistic Gods Found



The computer and its ability to run statistical tests on data has changed religion. By, for example, scanning for the various times and ways one word is used scholars can zero in on its meaning in ancient times. Now data analysis has jumped to history. 

The peculiar thing is. data driven history did not seem to have come from historians. The most prominent figures are people who came to history from other disciplines. Some historians don't agree with what data miners are concluding. 

The Atlantic, December, has an article the included the work of Peter Turchin. Turchin was a professor of entomology until he launched into another field, history. He found there are reams of historical data but historians mostly like to look at leaders, wars and such and ascribe importance to some and not others. Turchin applies standard statistical techniques and thinks many future events can be predicted. 

For example, he predicted in 2010 that in about 2020 our country would be in political turmoil. He said this would come about because in 2010 the number of educated and reasonably prosperous adults soon would be larger than the number of jobs for this group. This has happened periodically in history he says. He said there can be civil war. He does not prescribe policies to deal with these conditions, only that they are predictable. 

His data show that most complex societies invade and overpower less complex societies. Surely that is a good description of Europeans taking over the North American continent.

In religion he found ways to identify moralizing gods versus gods that do not moralize. He compared that to how complex societies are that worship different kinds of gods. The more complex the society, the more likely its god will be judgmental and preachy about morals. The moralistic gods do not exist until societies become complex so these kinds of gods are not the cause of complex societies. They are the result of it.

This kind of information gives us yet another perspective of who we are, what we believe and why. 



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