Biogerontology2: 73–77, 2001.© 2001Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

73

Opinion

Human ageing and the origins of religion

Robin Holliday12 Roma Court, West Pennant Hills, NSW 2125, Sydney, Australia (e-mail: RandL.Holliday@bigpond.com)

Received 26 June 2000; accepted in revised form 23 July 2000

Key words:death, immortality, longevity, moral codes, mortality

Abstract

During the evolution of hominids, the population could be sustained even with an expectation of life at birthof less than 20 years. Under these circumstances very few individuals reached old age. In these hunter-gatherercommunities, altruistic behaviour was encouraged because it increased the likelihood of survival, whereas self-interest did not. An early moral code benefited the community as a whole. As social evolution progressed, thechances of survival increased, and for the first time very elderly individuals appeared. However, the reward forsurvival to old age was merely decrepitude and death. Under these circumstances, new incentives became a socialnecessity, and these took the form of a belief in an eternal afterlife. Religion then became the basis for the moralcode, and it provided an assurance of continual survival after death.

Introduction: Human evolution

Amongst animal species, humans are unique inknowing that every individual will eventually die.Even quite young children are aware that very elderlyrelatives do not have long to live, and that whenthey die they will never see them again. The situ-ation was not always so clear cut as it is in humansocieties today. During the early evolution of hominidsin hunter-gatherer societies, very few reached old agebecause death was normally due to disease, starva-tion, drought, predators, or perhaps local wars. It canbe calculated that the population size could be main-tained with an infant mortality rate of about 25% andan annual mortality rate of 7% (Holliday 1996). Theexpectation of life at birth was only 16 years, and forfemales who reached reproductive age of 17 years, theexpectation of life was about 28 years. Females whosurvived this long would have produced, on average,six offspring. About 3% of all males and femalesmight be expected to reach an age of 45–50 years.The documented life expectancies of primitive hunter-gatherer communities is fairly close to these calculatedvalues (Meindl 1992).

It is probable that hunter-gatherer societiesconsisted of a few families with many important kin-

relationships. They were nomadic, depending on theone hand on hunting in co-operating groups, and onthe other in the search for, and collecting of, edibleplant components. In both cases, the group would havebeen more successful than an individual, so it was veryimportant from an early stage that a strong sense ofaltruism and co-operation became part of the culturein which children were raised. Assuming that languagewas in existence at this period of human evolution, animportant part of communication would be to explainthe benefits of helping others in the community, andalso the folly of selfishness and self-interest. In thisway, a moral sense became part of the culture of thecommunity.

Moral codes

It is fairly easy to envisage the form this moralteaching might take. It would be one of the roles ofthe more experienced members of the community, orit might be undertaken by the parents of children.It would be evident to all that the environment wasovertly, or potentially, hostile and stressful. The bene-fits of successful hunting and the hard work of foodgathering would be explained, as would the hazards of

74

predators. Also, the danger of being alone would bestressed, since the safety and survival of communitydepended in very large part on co-operative activities.The danger of the unknown in a hostile environmentwould be very important. This is in part built intoour sensory system, since a substantial part of theretina is particularly sensitive to movement in our peri-pheral vision, just what is needed to detect dangerapproaching. It would not be surprising if the teachersin the society warned of unknown enemies, evil spiritsand so on, which everyone must be made aware of.Such dangerous imaginary beings may well have beenthe first non-material creations in those early humansocieties.

The incentive to adopt these early moral valueswas very high. Those who followed the teachingswould be much more likely to survive than thosethat did not. Thus, the acceptance of the normalmorals of the community increased survival andlongevity. However, at this early stage of humanevolution, ageing itself would not have been anexpected consequence of successful survival, becausean extremely small proportion of individuals wouldhave reached an age when physical deteriorationbecame significant. In other words, old ageper sewould not have an important feature of the society, orany feature at all. One can go further, and suppose thatindividuals thought they might survive indefinitely,because the deaths they saw around them were due tointrinsic and extrinsic causes, other than ageing itself.

The key component of the evolutionary successof man was improved adaptation to the environmentin which he found himself. Other higher primateslive in social groups with complex family interactions,but the evolution of vastly improved communicationthrough language and the use of tools greatly improvedadaptive success. In numerical terms, this means areduced rate of annual mortality, and an increasein population size. There are several evolutionaryconsequences of this. There is selection for femaleswho reproduce for a longer period of time, simplybecause they have more offspring. This in turn islinked to a greater maximum longevity, and a slowingdown of the rate of development to adulthood, whichhad indeed occurred throughout primate evolution(Holliday 1995, 1996). This trend benefits the acquisi-tion of more skills and knowledge during childhoodand adolescence, and also the evolution of greaterbrain size. All these features of human evolution havebeen discussed many times (see Wilson 1978; Jones etal. 1992). It is, however, worth pointing out that the

general argument is greatly strengthened by a consid-eration of the reverse situation. If annual mortalitygradually increases, then the species will becomeextinct unless the rate of development and the rate ofreproduction is increased, and it can also be shownthat under these conditions there will also be selectionfor reduced longevity. (A clear-cut example of such anevolutionary trend in mammals is seen in specialisedcarnivores, such as stoats and weasels, which have ahigh metabolic rate, a high rate of development andreproduction, high mortality in their natural environ-ment, and a reduced maximum longevity compared toother carnivores.)

The success of human adaptation to the environ-ment increased inexorably, and then led to the abilityto change the environment itself. This is particularlyobvious in the development of agriculture. Insteadof a nomadic existence, humans stayed in one loca-tion to plant, tend and harvest these crops, at leastfor one part of the year. The advantage, most obvi-ously, was a more reliable food supply. Associatedchanges would have included the building of shelters,the increased size of each community, and finally,the division of labour into different activities withinone community. For example, there would have beentoolmakers, farmers and hunters, albeit no doubt withmuch overlap between them.

Ageing in the community

Successful exploitation of the environment and areduced annual mortality, results in greater popula-tion size. This in turn results in greater and greatercompetition between different human communities.The results are immigration and war, but these featuresof human behaviour are not directly relevant to theargument being presented here. Instead the argumentis based, in large part, on the altered age-structure ofthe most advanced human societies. More and morepeople in a community would survive to middle-age,and some would survive to old age, particularly astheir basic requirements would be increasingly met byyounger members of the community.

This trend would have hadvery profound effectson the existing moral codes of behaviour. As wesaw, the teaching of the young revolved around theneed for altruism and group interest, and the avoid-ance of acquisitiveness and self-interest. The rewardwas an increased likelihood of the raising of a familyand a longer adult life. With the cultural evolution

75

I have discussed, the reward would finally becomesenility and decrepitude. Worthy hard-working indi-viduals would feel cheated by the village elders orpriests (if such existed), because it became all too clearthat adult life could not be prolonged by altruism andcommunity spirit.

The birth of religion

This, I believe, is the key to the evolution of humanreligions.The social solution to the problem of senes-cence, old age and death, is simply to invoke anafterlife. The existing moral codes would remain inplace, but the eventual reward for virtue would bechanged. Instead of the benefits of an increased like-lihood of survival in a normal human community, theemphasis would be shifted to the benefits of survivalin a non-material afterworld. In this context, immor-tality, paradise, reunion with long deceased relativesor friends become added incentives. It is all too easyto see how the elaborate superstructures of variousreligions came into being.

This is not to say that one or more individualsconsciously devised a solution to the problem of oldage. Everyone became aware of senility and death atthe end of a long working life, and it would have beena few early thinkers who considered the problem seri-ously and proposed alternative scenarios. It is obviousfrom the contemporary world that people continuallydraw comfort from the belief in an afterlife. It wouldhave been so many thousands of years ago as well,when humans had evolved most of their intellectualand emotional capacities. Those who first suggestedthe possibility of an afterworld wanted to believe in itthemselves, and the advantages of that belief becameapparent to all. Religiousfaith was born. Most modernreligions are founded on the influence of a singleperson – a religious prophet. Such individuals believedthey had God-given powers, and their success layin their ability to persuade others that these powerswere real and could override normal experience andexpectations, as, for example, in the acceptance ofmiraculous events. It may well have been that veryearly in the origin of human religion such individualsalso played a crucial role.

In this new context, the child became much moreaware of death following old age. The answer to thequestion “why do we die?” can be dressed up withinthe context of any of several supernatural God-givenor God-driven worlds. Previously, children were told

that relatives died because they got ill, were killed bypredators, or starved. Indeed, if they were spared allthese causes of death, and others, they might well liveon this earth forever. This would have been a greatcomfort to them, but one, unfortunately, that becamedemonstrably false. It was necessary for parents andelders to provide new answers to the child’s question.

Diversity of religions

The general argument I have outlined does not dependon the details of the supernatural features of any partic-ular religion. It applies to religions with one or manygods, religions which invoke re-incarnation, religionswhich state that all are eligible for an afterlife, or onlythe highly privileged or successful. The key featuresprobably predate the religions we have informationabout, but it is very clear that those of the civilisationsof Egypt and Mesopotamia placed great emphasis onthe importance of the afterlife. Those cultures werehighly advanced and sophisticated. We will probablynever know in any detail the nature and the beliefs ofall those less advanced cultures which preceded them.

Speculation about the exact form of any partic-ular early religion is not helpful, as the followingquotations show. “Granted the ubiquity of religionand its diversity, historians have found no universalessence expressible in terms of common beliefs”(Ramesy 1979). “An empirically based theory of reli-gions origins is impossible since only remnants ofarcheological evidence are preserved to give hints ofwhat the earliest forms might have been like” (Yinger1979). We need to consider only those basic charac-teristics which would be necessary to define a clearsocial function. First, the religion would be based ona specific set of beliefs, formulated as dogmas thatwere not to be questioned. There would have to beuniformity of beliefs and dogmas within an estab-lished community, and those would be transmittedfrom generation to generation, with occasional modi-fications as appropriate. Second, there would be aspecific function for priests or priest-like members ofsociety. They would be responsible for teaching thebeliefs to the rest of the community, since it wouldbe essential for the beliefs to be uniformly accepted,the priest class would be endowed with authority, andmost likely in direct contact with whatever gods wereinvoked. Third, the existence of omnipotent deities toprovide a framework which answers the questions anyconscious being might ask. Who created the world

76

and universe? Who created man? Why do men andwomen grow old and die? In all cases the answeris provided. The deity was responsible for creationand defining the course of life and death. Fourth, thereligion would be closely related to the moral valuesthat had probably predated the religion itself. Thus,worthy altruistic behaviour would be rewarded, andacquisitive, selfish or antisocial behaviour would bepunished. This punishment might occur within thesociety itself, or it might become associated with thethreat of a hellish afterlife, or re-incarnation to a lesserspecies. The invoking of evil spirits, unknown dangersand so on, might well be related to this aspect ofreligion, in order to deter antisocial behaviour. Fifth,the whole religious edifice would be built around aseries of myths, about the origin of gods and humans,as well as visual symbolism. Instantly recognisableimages of gods, or other mythical figures, would beessential components in gaining social acceptance, aswould ceremonies and ceremonial events with indi-viduals in elaborate dress. Many of these activitiesbecame intimately associated with art and music, andparticularly, much later on, with architecture.

These five features of early religious faith arenot at all isolated one from the other. There wouldbe much overlap and interaction between them. Thelinks between mortal beings and immortal gods wouldbe very variable between different religions. Mortalscan become god-like, and gods can enter normalcommunities. We know the potential power of oneman, the prophet, is enormous. Yet this occurrenceis likely to be rare, and for every successful prophetwho founded a whole religion, there are probablythousands of cult figures who would themselves liketo found their own particular religion by impressingtheir own beliefs on others. The complexity of moderncontemporary society does not appear to have reducedthe frequency of cults. Successful religion musthave permanence in a particular community, or setof communities. Dawkins used the word meme todescribe a belief which is transmitted from gener-ation to generation, and he cited Judaistic memesas examples of some of the longest surviving ones(Dawkins 1976).

Further social evolution

The time scale of memes is minute compared to thetime scale for genes. Although the emergence ofhunter-gatherer communities with language and tools

may have occurred a quarter of a million years ago, itis likely that hominid evolution was quite slow duringthat period. Successive waves of human migrationfrom Africa eventually occurred, with the replace-ment of one subspecies by another, although thisis still a contentious issue. With regard to hominidevolution and the origin of religion, I propose herethat the key factor was successful adaptation to theenvironment. This adaptation depended on the evolvedbrainpower of humans. The discovery and exploitationof agriculture and the establishment of increasinglycomplex settled communities was associated with aconsiderable increase in population size, eventuallyassociated with the building of villages and towns.All this became possible because annual mortality wasgradually reduced, probably at an accelerating rateas more complex and sophisticated communities wereestablished. Evolutionary biologists and social anthro-pologists have discussed the origin and significance ofhuman religions (reviewed by Evans-Pritchard 1968;Wilson 1978). It has not previously been suggestedthat there is a relationship between the first occurrenceof senility and death from old age, and the social needto invoke immortality, as I have done here.

At the end of the twentieth century, it is appropriateto assess the current human situation in relation to thelong period when religion was the dominant socialforce. We now have a very good understanding ofthe evolution of living organisms, including the evolu-tion of all vertebrates and man. In the last decade orso it has become apparent why ageing evolved as anintegral part of evolution itself (Rose 1991; Holliday1995; Hayflick 1996; Austad 1997). In other words,we are aware not only of the inevitability of old ageand death, but also of the reasons for the ageing of thebody. Of course, only a minute fraction of humanityhas this awareness, and most will continue with beliefslittle altered from the past. These beliefs continue torevolve around the basic features of all religions. Thebelief is good and evil, and freedom of the will tomake choices between them. The existence of a godor gods, and the means to communicate with them byprayer and revelation. A non-material soul or spiritwhich is immortal. In spite of the innumerable vari-ations upon these basic faiths which now exist, I haveargued here that all can be traced back to the earliesthuman religions.

Those that reject these ancient views have acceptedthe scientific facts that human individuals on thisplanet have finite survival time and that there is nonon-material afterlife. This realistic view of ourselves

77

and the world we live in is not just a rejection of faiths,but encompasses the very strong belief that all humanproblems must be solved by human beings themselves(Holliday 1981). Human beings alone have knowledgeand reason, and must act accordingly in the environ-ment they find themselves, to face up to and solvetheir own problems. Resort to supernatural forces anda belief in fate will simply make these problems harderto solve in the end.

References

Austad SN (1997) Why We Age. John Wiley, New YorkDawkins R (1976) The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press,

OxfordEvans-Pritchard EE (1968) Theories of Primitive Religion. Oxford

University Press, Oxford

Hayflick L (1996) How and Why We Age. Random House, NewYork

Holliday R (1981) The Science of Human Progress. Oxford Univer-sity Press, Oxford

Holliday R (1995) Understanding Ageing. Cambridge UniversityPress, Cambridge

Holliday R (1996) The evolution of human longevity. PerspectivesBiol Med 40: 100–107

Jones S, Martin R and Pilbeam D (eds) (1992) The CambridgeEncyclopedia of Human Evolution. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge

Meindl RS (1992) Human populations before agriculture. In: JonesS, Martin R and Pilbeam D (eds) The Cambridge Encyclopediaof Human Evolution, pp 406–410. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge

Ramesy IT (1979) Philosophy of Religion. Encyclopaedia Brittan-nica Inc, 15th edition 15: 592–603

Wilson EO (1978) On Human Nature. Harvard University Press,Cambridge, MA

Yinger JM (1979) Social Aspects of Religion. Encyclopaedia Brit-tannica Inc, 15th edition 15: 604–613