"Belief in punitive gods linked with expansion of human societies."
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2077082-belief-in-punitive-gods-lin...
"Be afraid. Be very afraid. Our civilisation may depend on it.
Complex modern societies may have grown and prospered thanks to a pervading fear of moralistic, all-knowing and, above all, punitive gods."
Johnson sees the paper as "an antidote to the arguments of atheists such as Richard Dawkins. Far from being a poison in society, religion emerges as an evolutionary adaptation that provides societies with “a powerful way of promoting cooperation”.
Hmmm, it's a long way from the lab games to whole societies cooperating. However it may be another illustration of people behaving better because they believe God is watching them.
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