Why Mankind Has Needed Religion Whereas Bees Have Not: Religious prescriptions provide the building blocks for the cultural evolution of distinct human moral communities

With a Foreword by Rowan Williams - Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge

Religions - broadly defined - are found in probably all human societies. This convinces even sceptics that religions must have an important function.  The God(s) they worship, their creation myths and their beliefs about an afterlife are extremely variable. What they all share are prescriptions for behaviour concerning not only ethics but such matters as diet, hygiene and dress. The origin of these prescriptions is unknown but their persistence can be explained by their promoting resistance to infectious disease

Religious prescriptions provide the building blocks for the cultural evolution of distinct human moral communities. This explains their universality and their mutual intolerance.

The differences in behaviour between bee colonies are however genetically determined so that bees have no need for religion!