[ExI] When small societies reach c.1 million - religion appears

[BillK]

Interesting.....

When Ancient Societies Hit a Million People, Vengeful Gods Appeared
By Charles Q. Choi, Live Science Contributor | March 20, 2019

<https://www.livescience.com/65039-punishing-gods-rise-with-complex-societies.html>

Quote:
"It was particularly striking how consistent it was [that] this
phenomenon emerged at the million-person level," Savage said. "First,
you get big societies, and these beliefs then come."

All in all, "our research suggests that religion is playing a
functional role throughout world history, helping stabilize societies
and people cooperate overall," Savage said. "In really small
societies, like very small groups of hunter-gatherers, everyone knows
everyone else, and everyone's keeping an eye on everyone else to make
sure they're behaving well. Bigger societies are more anonymous, so
you might not know who to trust."

At those sizes, you see the rise of beliefs in an all-powerful,
supernatural person watching and keeping things under control, Savage
added.
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To me that seems to say that when humans feel things are getting out
of control, they need to feel that 'somebody or something' is still
controlling things. That could also explain the creation of conspiracy
theories. Humans really don't like the idea that the universe is
uncaring and heartless random chance.


BillK