The Future of Consciousness

In my book, After Religion, I propose that our evolution as a species is still going on, but on the psychological, as well as, the biological level. And the essence of that psychological evolution is our enormous capacity for learning, so the rate of adaptation via learning is vastly accelerated relative to biological adaptation. Perhaps the most effective way of describing the transformational power of learning, which is driven by the adaptation of grammatical language, is to say that it has extended perception beyond the limits of our primate instincts. For our species, perception is dominated by learning, whereas for all others it is driven by biological instinct.

Symbolic cultures arose concurrently with, because they are a side effect of, our learning ability. Religion was original form of learned adaptation because it conditioned each new member of the reproductive community to perceive realty according to the vales and attitudes of that community. This perceptual adaptation greatly enhanced the individual’s chances for survival and genetic reproduction within the natural and social characteristics of that community.

Religion evolved because of its function as the primary enforcer of the reproductive community’s values and behaviors. Consequently, contrary to what every culture teaches its own members, neither culture nor religion emerged to serve the happiness and well being of individual members. Rather they were selected for by natural selection simply because they punished any member of the community who violated the collective adaptations, i.e., the traditional values and behaviors, of the majority within that particular reproductive community.