Evolutionary Origins of Religion

On 11 January Guy Otten, GMH Secretary, looked at the evolutionary origins of religion.  He mapped the evolution of early man from 6 million years ago to the present day, highlighting the factors that led to the growth of religion. He correlated changes in the brain of our ancestors with the development of the conditions that led to the growth of religion.  The elements of intelligence mapped were 1. general intelligence which includes learning by trial and error and associative learning, 2. social intelligence which involves the ability to infer the mental states of others, 3. technical skills relating for example to the use of tools, 4. awareness of the natural world and 5. language skills.  Evolutionary psychologists believe that modern chimps are likely to resemble our ancestors from 6 million years ago.  

At that time they would have had some intelligence, such as minimal technical skills, for example using sticks to reach into bee hives for honey, and some awareness of the natural world, but the various kinds of intelligence were separate. They would have lived in groups and would not have had any language skills as we know them.  Guy talked through the changes to the brain at different periods:  4 million years ago with the appearance of the first early hominines, 1.8 million years ago and the emergence of Homo Erectus, 500 thousand years ago when Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals appeared.  The brain grew in size, there were advances in technical skills, tools were becoming more advanced, and social and communication skills were developing.  Our ancestors gradually moved out of Africa and by the Stone Age reached remote places such as Southern England.  By 100 thousand years ago the areas of intelligence in Homo Sapiens started to overlap, with the barriers between different parts of the brain weakening.  At that time Homo Sapiens could for instance think about the social world using technical ideas or the natural world using social ideas.  This accompanied the development of language, a higher level of consciousness, and a growth of imagination, all caused by cross-fertilization of the formerly separated intelligence domains.  At this time there is evidence of art in the form of beads, necklaces, figurines and burials with grave goods.

Guy talked about the role that the quick reactions of animals play in ensuring sensory responses to threats and their survival generally.  When language abilities are developed, words can describe dangers.  In addition, language can also facilitate the sharing of knowledge of technical skills about hunting and tool making.  With the development of language came story telling, which played an important role in these societies.  Pre-scientific humans, grappling with phenomena that they did not understand, developed stories about hunting, battles with large animals, changes in the environment, weather phenomena, shortage of food, illness and death, and warfare.  Stories about exaggerated mythical ancestors and mysterious forces that caused events, agents of harm and agents who could save, were also common.  These advances in human thinking set the conditions for the growth of religion.  Religion in this sense is a belief in non-physical beings.  Variants of belief systems involved individuals who claimed to be able to communicate with the spirit world.  Evidence of this type of religion appears at the dawn of recorded history with burials in Egypt from 3100 BCE of the Pharaohs with everything they needed to live in the afterlife.  The burial of the Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang in c 210-09 BCE with his Terracotta warriors to defend him in the afterlife provides a further example.  There were also rituals in the ancient world designed to propitiate the gods.  These form the origins of church services today, which generally include prayers to the deity.  Shamanic types of religious thinking had their own cosmologies to answer questions about the earth’s origins.  Guy questioned whether their ideas are any different qualitatively from those of the Abrahamic faiths.


This array of religious thinking developed in many parts of the world into the polytheisms of ancient history and still prevails in parts of the world today.  From polytheism came monotheism, as was the case with Judaism and Islam, with belief in one god being just the latest development of magical thinking about the spirit world.  There is an association with primitive people and religion and the cargo cult in Melanesia is a case in point.  In Vanuatu there is a cult that believes that Prince Philip is a god.  Guy pointed out that all religious thinking and beliefs in gods emanates from the same beginnings and are completely unfounded evidence wise.  He argues that when one puts the evolution of religion into perspective one can see a history of some 60 thousand years with religious thinking persisting and different religions coming and going.  Guy concluded that there was little reason to think that the current dominant religions would last indefinitely but we should be mindful that at this point we only have a few hundred years of scientific thinking to aid this turnaround.

Trends in Religion, and Dialogue

In November Jeremy Rodell, Dialogue Officer at the BHA,

delivered a talk to the Manchester group on trends in religious affiliation in the UK.

According to the British Social Attitudes Survey 1983-2015, the proportion of people who consider themselves to be non-religious increased from just over 30% to just under 50% though Jeremy questioned whether people are less religious or whether it is more socially acceptable to say that you are non-religious.  The other major changes over this period were a fall in affiliation with the Church of England from 40% to under 20% and a rise in the non-Christian religious from 2% to 8% of the population.  The proportion of Catholics has not changed and remains at around 10%: the reduction in the number of UK Catholic followers has been offset by a steady stream of immigration of Catholic people.  The number of people following Islam is increasing and by 2050 the percentage of the population is predicted to be 10%.  Islam is the most diverse of the religious groups and comprises a number of different sects along a spectrum from liberals to Jihadis.

Jeremy made an interesting comparison of the non-religious proportions of the population as captured by the 2011 Census and the British Social Attitudes Survey 2011.  The Census shows a much lower non-religious proportion of 25% because it asks ‘What is your religion?’ rather than the question asked in the British Social Attitudes Survey ‘Do you regard yourself as belonging to a particular religion?’ which rendered a 46% non-religious proportion.

Jeremy pointed out that according to the 2011 Census Greater Manchester has a very diverse religious population with a relatively high proportion of Muslims and Jews.  Jeremy also outlined some interesting findings on the expression that religion takes for different groups as outlined in a 2013 You Gov survey.  Muslims engage in prayer and attend services more than Christians.  Double the number of men than women are non believers.  The majority of Christian followers are over age 55 and Muslim followers have the youngest age profile. Further information on the above statistics and trends is available on the BHA website.  Jeremy summarised that there is more diversity of religions in the UK today than previously and talked about the challenges that the BHA have correspondingly identified.  These are:

• Increasing polarisation of belief systems and a lack of cohesion.

• Uninformed generalisations about other religions 

• Increases in faith based prejudices

• A reduction in institutional privileges

• An increase in conflicting values

Jeremy outlined three ways in which the BHA and Humanists can respond.  The first is to explain and promote secularism which means the state being neutral in religious matters, the universality of human rights, freedom of thought, the equal application of the law, and non-religious privilege.  The second way is through education about religious and non-religious beliefs, seeking an end to state funded schools and faith based admissions to state funded schools, and encouraging a broader preparation for life in a pluralistic society through education on sex, relationships, values and citizenship.  Finally, Humanists can engage in dialogue with other faith groups.  Meaningful dialogue is where one sees the human before the person’s religion, avoids generalisations, and recognises areas of disagreement and areas of commonality.  As the BHA Dialogue Officer, Jeremy talked further on his role and stressed that effective dialogue requires each party to engage with and listen to the other person’s viewpoint.  From this stance, the other person will be more likely to consider the Humanist viewpoint. 

Jeremy saw dialogue as a means of furthering the BHA strategy: “We want a world where everyone lives cooperatively on the basis of shared human values, respect for human rights, and concern for future generations.”  It can complement campaigning by making a positive Humanist contribution to building a peaceful, plural, secular society and by improving others’ understanding of Humanism.  Finally, Jeremy described three types of useful dialogue.  The first is interfaith dialogue which involves representatives from a number of faiths in dialogue with each other.  The second is public events which can allow for representatives from different faiths to reach common ground on issues.   The third is private bilateral/ multilateral dialogue and this is where Humanists can enter into dialogue with specific faith groups on specific issues.

Trident Nuclear Weapons

At Stockport's November Meeting Dr David Hookes, of the

University of Liverpool gave a PowerPoint presentation on The Trident Missile System. Dr Hookes is also a member of Scientists for Global Responsibility.

The Trident II (D5) is designed to be carried on a Vanguard class submarine which has a crew of 132 and carries 16 Trident Missile Tubes and 4 Spearfish torpedo tubes. Each Trident Missile has up to 12x100kton warheads and has a range of 7,000 miles accurate to 90 metres. In 2012 the US had 14 nuclear powered ballistic missile submarines, Russia had 10, and UK and France 4 each.

The advantage of such a system is that the UK could inflict huge damage on any adversary that threatened attack including overcoming air defences of capitals such as Moscow and Beijing. The main disadvantage is the huge capital cost.  Each Vanguard can be at sea for 3 months and there is always one on patrol at any time.(Contiuous At Sea Deterrence). The replacements should arrive in early 2030s.

But will Trident still work in the future or will the oceans become transparent? Trident depends on the stealth of the submarines and the effectiveness of the systems that protect them. Technologies such as Active Sonar are being rapidly developed as aids to detection. Acoustic technologies and lasers are becoming reliable for underwater communications over significant distances. Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS) is becoming effective over thousands of square km. Active OAWRS is already used to detect fish and passive OAWRS can detect whale noise over 100,000 sqkm. Autonomous and semi-autonomous drones (unmanned underwater vehicles – UUVs) which are already in use in commercial space could significantly change outcomes, particularly if they are operating in packs or swarms. Submarines may not be the ideal platform in the future that they have been in the past. Some of the UUVs under development are: US Navy Mk 18 MOD2 “Swordfish”, US Navy Bluefin and Cambridge University “Blackghost”.

Work is going on in at least five technologies to detect nuclear submarines: Passive and Active sonar, Water disturbances e.g. wake, Magnetic fields, Blue-green lasers and anti-neutrino emissions. Once located the Trident sub can be tracked indefinitely.

Artificial Intelligence software is now able to filter large streams of data, discriminating between important and unimportant information. This will help drones act collectively in large fleets (swarms) over large areas with multiple sensor inputs. This will take away some of the tactical and strategic advantage of the submarine. One danger is, that as submarines become more detectable and vulnerable to attack, their payload becomes more susceptible to launch. Some of the dangers of cyber-attacks are: Spoof early warning systems, Hacking into communications and issuing order for attack, Hacking directly into actual missile control systems.

Dr Hookes then went on to counter 6 myths about Nuclear Weapons:

Nuclear weapons are essential for security. In fact they breed fear and distrust; are useless against real threats such as climate change, terrorism, resource depletion, poverty and disease.  Deterrence theory makes assumptions that are unstable, unprovable and unreliable. Most countries reject the idea that Nuclear weapons make them safer.

Nuclear Weapons have kept the peace for 70 years. There have been hundreds of conflicts involving at least 10million deaths. There have been several “close shaves”. It has to work for ever, not just 70 years. We no longer have ideological blocks and there is a more unpredictable world.

It’s okay for some countries to have nuclear weapons. This undermines the Non-proliferation treaty and Privileges the security of a few states at the expense of the rest. If nuclear weapons are used all countries will be affected.

A Ban Treaty is unnecessary. Although 40,000 nuclear weapons have been dismantled 16,000 remain. All nuclear states are modernising their arsenals, and more countries have joined the nuclear club. Nuclear weapons are the only WMD not yet prohibited by international treaty.

A Ban is useless unless all countries sign at once. Treaties affect countries that do not sign them. US no longer makes of uses landmines but has not signed the ban treaty. Recently Syria was persuaded to give up its chemical weapons. Nations can join ban later (subject to eliminating stockpiles).

Banning Nuclear weapons won’t eliminate them. Banning usually precedes elimination, and a ban makes maintenance and development more difficult. It would bring legal clarity and moral authority sending a clear signal that all nuclear weapons were unacceptable. Ban treaties already in place cover: Biological Weapons (1972), Chemical Weapons (1993), Landmines (1997), and Cluster Bombs (2008). Consideration was also given to International law, in particular the 1949 Geneva Conventions together with the 1997 additional Protocol. An Opinion set out by the International Court of Justice concluded “the threat or use of Nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict. . .” 

Faith to Faithless

On 12 October Imtiaz Shams, the founder of Faith to Faithless

(FTF), provided Greater Manchester Humanists with an outline of the organisation's work.  FTF was set up in 2015 and continued the work that Imtiaz had being doing to support ex-Muslims since 2012.  FTF provides services to people who leave, or are thinking of leaving their faith group.  As an organisation, FTF is in its infancy and because it has such a small budget, its activities are limited.

He grew up in Saudi Arabia in a practising Muslim family but now lives in England and considers himself to be a Humanist.  Despite this, he described in fond terms his continued engagement and involvement with his family and with the Muslim community.  This approach underpins FTF’s work because Imtiaz is of the view that after a potential initial estrangement very few families disassociate with the apostate.  He considers it important to maintain existing family and community relationships.

Imtiaz has supported people who have left their religion and talked about some of the problems that they encounter; some people face physical abuse, many face financial difficulties, and people often feel isolated.   FTF offers a counselling and support network to these people.  FTF also engages with faith leaders to encourage understanding of people who leave their faiths.  Imtiaz thinks that faith leaders generally ignore the issue because they do not know how to deal with it.

He hopes that FTF will secure funding to expand its research capability to establish the extent of apostasy, to expand its counselling service, to build links with schools and organisations such as the Ex-Muslim Forum and the Samaritans, and to enter into dialogue with faith groups to discuss apostasy

A question and answer session followed Imtiaz’s talk.  There was a discussion around the dislike of the term apostasy mainly because this is a religious term.  Other terms to explain this were suggested; ex-religious, post-religious, enlightened and free-thinking. There was a general consensus that Humanists can assist FTF in its growth phase by advising its members, and the schools that it works with, about FTF’s work. At the end of the meeting a general collection raised £200 for FTF.

Humanist Heroines

The Stockport October meeting was an AGM followed by Robin

Grinter speaking on ‘Three Humanist Heroines: Mary Wollstonecraft, Annie Besant and Marie Stopes’. Whilst we hear a lot about Humanist men, but not
 enough about Humanist women. These three were selected because they were outspoken and combatant campaigners for radical changes to promote human rights, especially for women.

Mary Wollstonecraft had a short life, dying in 1797 after childbirth at the age of 38. She had a hard upbringing, leaving home at 19, founding a Dissenting school to promote justice and equality which collapsed, then becoming a governess in Ireland ill-treated by a dominating aristocratic employer.  
Her achievements included a brief history of the French Revolution and an open letter to Edmund Burke, entitled ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Men’.  She condemned both aristocratic and monarchical government, supported the French Revolutionaries and advocated a republic. She argued for an equal society based on reason, justice and the idea of progress, not tradition and custom, a year before Thomas Paine wrote ‘The Rights of Man’ . 
In 1792, Mary published her second revolutionary public letter ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’, which went far beyond Paine in demanding full human rights for all, not just for men. Her book attacked the assumption prevalent at the time that women were inferior to men: she said they only appeared inferior because they were denied education.  Her revolutionary thinking was set in a reasonably conventional social context. While she argued strongly for the right for women to have careers, she saw their role primarily as loyal wives and good mothers and accepted the social and class structure of her day.

Annie Besant, born in 1847, was brought up in the Church of England, and married a clergyman. However she lost her faith and became increasingly atheist. When she refused to take Holy Communion her husband divorced her. She joined the National Secular Society (set up by Charles Bradlaugh in 1866) and edited its journal ‘the National Reformer’. She lived with Bradlaugh and they worked closely together. Annie became a powerful orator, speaking on freedom of thought, secularism, workers’ rights, birth control and women’s rights. 
 In 1877 she and Bradlaugh published an American book advocating birth control by contraception. This enraged the Church and Annie and Bradlaugh were taken to court. Though the case was dropped she lost custody of her daughter.  In her Autobiography she said ‘I exposed the history of the Catholic Church with unsparing hatred, its persecutions, its religious wars, its cruelties and its oppressions….no philosophy, no religion has brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.’
With radical views she joined the Fabian Movement and later on the Marxist Social Democratic Federation, leading to a break with the more right wing Bradlaugh. Annie became a union organiser, speaking at the Bloody Sunday protest meeting of the unemployed in 1887 and organising the union of the London Dockers. But her main achievement was her work in 1888 for the welfare of women working in the Bryant and May match factory in London leading to Union recognition, raised wages and improved conditions.
Annie also fought successfully for improvements in the education of poor children in London pledging to work for ‘No more hungry children’. She devoted her formidable energies to organising free meals and free medical examinations to bring this about. 
Annie also spoke on behalf of women’s right to vote at meetings of the Suffragette Movement.

Marie Stopes, a paleobiologist lecturing at University College, London and Manchester University, was a brave campaigner for women’s rights and a pioneer in Britain of birth control. She set up a network of clinics, and various societies to organise and campaign for birth control. These societies became the Family Planning Association in 1931. The Marie Stopes International Global Partnership is now active in 38 countries.
Her two books, ‘Married Love ’and ‘Wise Parenthood’, both published in 1918,  gave women sexually explicit advice about methods of birth control. She also edited a magazine ‘Birth Control News’. When the Protestant and Catholic Churches called for her prosecution she held protest meetings outside Churches!
Marie believed birth control should only be practised within marriage, but she campaigned for the rights of married women teachers and for separate taxation of husbands and wives. However, she also believed in ‘Eugenics’ and argued for the ‘sterilisation of those totally unfit for parenthood – the insane, the feeble-minded and half-castes. 

Robin concluded by considering the credentials as Humanists of Annie Besant and Marie Stopes. Annie Besant lost her faith while married to a clergyman, gained a divorce and campaigned as an atheist. Towards the end of her life she developed an interest in theosophy, not a theistic stance, but certainly a spiritualist one with supernatural overtones.  Marie Stopes never dabbled in the divine, but she did become a proponent of eugenics at odds with the fundamental Humanist belief in the equal potential value of every human being.
Other influential women include Harriet Taylor, the wife and co-worker of John Stuart Mill; the novelist, Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot); Simone de Beauvoir; and Germaine Greer.
Isaac Newton remarked and Stephen Hawking has observed ‘we stand on the shoulders of giants’ who have made these changes possible. Let us add ‘and giantesses’, or ‘Humanist Heroines’.

Srebrenica

September's Manchester meeting was lead by Ms Heather Fletcher, the Co-Chair of The Muslim Jewish Forum.  She provided the group with an outline of what she learned about Srebrenica during her trip to former Yugoslavia in 2015.  She made the trip with a group called Women of Faith.

Bosnia was part of the Ottoman Empire between c.1459 CE and 1878 CE.  The Ottomans encouraged local people to nominally convert to Islam.  In 1908 Bosnia was formally incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire.  This caused widespread resentment in neighbouring Serbia which had designs on incorporating it into a Greater Serbia. This led to the assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914 in Sarajevo.  After the First World War Bosnia (and Serbia) were incorporated into the new state of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War the only effective resistance to German occupation was provided by Marshall Tito's communists.  After the War Tito became the ruler of Yugoslavia. Ms Fletcher was of the view that Tito formed one of the most successful Socialist states ever and it was not uncommon to have a Church, a Mosque and a Synagogue existing peacefully on the same street in Sarajevo.  In Tito's Yugoslavia coexistence, inter-marriage and toleration were normal. After the death of Tito the state began to break up into the smaller national entities and a new wave of nationalism and religious bigotry swept the Balkans. The Serbian idea of Greater Serbia re-emerged.  Ms Fletcher's party visited a medical centre which treated women who had been raped during the conflict.  It is said that between 50,000 and 100,000 rapes were carried out during the conflict and many of the attackers were former neighbours, school friends and/or work colleagues. The purpose of rape was to change their ethnic identity or to spoil these women for future husbands.

Ms Fletcher explained that Srebrenica was once a thriving town which has now largely been abandoned. Over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by the Bosnian Serb army there during the massacre in 1995.  Around 6,000 have known graves and the process of identifying the remains is still ongoing.  On 11 July every year a mass funeral takes place for the remains identified in the past year.  Ms Fletcher’s group met with a woman who had lost both of her sons and her husband.  She attended a war crimes tribunal where she met a former Serbian fighter who apologised to her for his part in the massacre.  This woman was not bitter and resentful and gave the fighter her forgiveness as she believed life was too short and it was evil to bear grudges.  Ms Fletcher ended her presentation by saying that their guide during their trip, Rashid, had friends from all the different identities in Bosnia and for this reason he was hopeful for the country’s future. Suggested Further Reading on the Topic: Little, A: Silber, L & Ciric, A: The Death of Yugoslavia.  A book to accompany the TV series and a very good introduction to the disintegration of Yugoslavia.  Clark, C: The Sleepwalkers.  A book about the origins of World War One. It gives a good account of the Serbian angle.  Goldhagen, D : Hitler's Willing Executioners. Along with Browning, C: Ordinary Men. This is a book which shows that normal people do horrific things and relates to events in Poland and Germany.

Writing "The Einstein Code"

At the September Stockport meeting Joanne Welch, author of The Einstein Code, talked about how she came to write the book. She began with the influences on her early life including the schoolteacher who suggested to her parents that she should go to a private Grammar school. This was achieved with the aid of a bursary and a second-hand uniform.

Ever questioning, the Evangelical Christians with whom she worshipped said she was not a proper Christian, so she went to St Paul’s where she became the first girl to become a server.

It was at Wadham College Oxford when she really began to question the existence of God. She was introduced to Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene and Hawking's A Brief History of Time. 
She had a career for a time but then found herself caring for her children and a parent with dementia. Needing something to use her brain, she wrote The Einstein code. When an early version was not published she went on a writing course. Malory Blackman taught her to write to please herself, to read and to rewrite. A novel must have a passionate theme and a good plot structure. Normality should first be established then there must be a trigger point after which the hero/heroine embarks on a perilous journey. There must be a Quest with a few surprises and, of course, a climax. Barry Cunningham’s advice was to start with something dramatic, a “car going over a cliff” moment. Val McDermid said that to write better books one should first read bad books. A recipe for a successful character is a little bit of yourself and a little bit of those you love.  Armed with all this advice she did rewrite and received two offers in 9 weeks.

The book is aimed at children and includes messages in code. Joanne talked about the Caesar code used in the book which is a kind of substitution cipher in which each letter is “shifted” a certain number of places up or down the alphabet. Joanne provided a number of messages in code for the audience to decipher.

She also discussed book codes where both sender and recipient have to use the same page of the same book to encrypt and decrypt the messages.

Other books planned are: The Darwin Code and The Quantum Code