● Research reveals psychology of religion
● More people are atheists than we think
● It’s not a trust issue
Why did religion evolve in humans, but not other animals? And why, despite this, do many people not believe at all?
Are atheists trusted? Can atheists be trusted? And why are some societies getting more secular over time?
Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species explores these intriguing questions and more in a digestible way designed to get people thinking.
Cultural evolutionary psychologist Dr Will Gervais draws on fresh research and carefully collected data to dig into the debate in this popular science book just out. Disbelief debunks some popular misconceptions about religion and atheism, painting a comprehensive theoretical account of both.
For example, the idea that we have religion because it’s, as Marx said, ‘the opiate of the masses’ misses the mark. “There's a lot of things about religion that people find comforting, but it isn’t a good explanation why our species is the only one that has religion,” said Dr Gervais. When it comes to atheism, Gervais dismisses the idea that it’s primarily a product of rationality or science-mindedness:
“There was the big ‘New Atheism' boom, years ago, when people like Richard Dawkins were writing about religion,” said Dr Gervais. “But a lot of that seemed more political than scientific. They didn't engage with the actual science of how religion works.”
Disbelief discusses relevant work on what makes religion tick, at the level of culture and psychology. It asks how individual people come to hold their religious beliefs, and how entire religions rise and fall over the centuries.
“In the US and more religious countries, people are super distrustful towards atheists,” says Dr Gervais, a Reader at Brunel University London. These negative stereotypes are juxtaposed against research showing that atheists are just about as morally trustworthy as anyone else.
In much of the world (North America, Western Europe and now some of Asia), religion seems to be in decline. Whereas in less economically developed parts people are as religious as ever. “In wealthier societies with more of a social safety net, people might remain privately religious, but they're less open and fervent about it. So you start seeing less of these big religious displays, and over generations public religion fades away.”
Disbelief explores how some societies get less religious, and highlights the fact that many atheists are reluctant to openly identify as such even in anonymous surveys and polls.
