Evolutionary Accounts of Religion within a Christian Account of Big History

Abstract

Big History is a mode of thought that seeks to integrate findings of the natural sciences, social sciences, and history into a coherent overarching story of the universe and of humanity. The humanity-related elements in Big History will necessarily include the emergence of "religion," including Evolutionary Accounts of Religion (EAR). Here we review two programmatic contributions to EAR, by Dunbar and Torrey, and then propose a theistic account of Big History through which to respond to their proposals. We accept their general argument that humanity's religious capacities have emerged through the evolutionary history of the Homo genus, yet we offer a theistic alternative to their accounts of the evolutionary function of religion. We then argue for how one aspect of humanity's evolved religious capacities, namely the proclivity of the Homo sapiens brain to produce transcendent ambiguity (many gods, etc.), reflects not a flaw in God's design but an evolutionary outcome intended by God--to facilitate humanity's search for God.