Robert Wright: Divinity as a Result of Cultural Evolution
Robert Wright proposes a revolutionary definition of divinity: it is not a supernatural being, but an objective world order that rewards cooperation. In this view, the idea of God evolves alongside the human capacity for cooperation. Systems that reward long-term non-zero-sum games prove more durable than those based on exploitation. Understanding this structure is crucial for modern economics and law if they are to avoid self-destruction in the face of global interdependence.
The Primal Sacred, Polytheism, and the Crises of Israelite Monotheism
The primal sacred was purely transactional. Hunter-gatherers did not need "policeman gods" because blood ties provided control. Spirits were partners in a cosmic barter: humans offered sacrifices, expecting rain or protection in return. With the rise of agrarian states, polytheism became a mirror of bureaucracy. Gods gained administrative functions, and religious syncretism acted as "geopolitical lubricant," facilitating alliances between cities.
The evolution toward monotheism was a response to political crises. Israelite monolatry (the worship of one god while acknowledging others) served to centralize power. It was only the catastrophe of the Babylonian exile that forced a theological breakthrough: Yahweh became a universal God, ruling over all nations. This elevation allowed for the preservation of national identity, though it initially combined cosmological universalism with ethical particularism.
Christianity, the Quran, and the Expanding Moral Circle
Christianity revolutionized the religious market by drastically reducing the costs of entry into the community. The Apostle Paul abolished dietary requirements and circumcision, creating a "fictional family" based on trust between strangers. Meanwhile, Quranic theology reflects Muhammad's political dynamics: from tolerance in the Meccan phase (a survival strategy) to rigorous law and discipline in the Medinan phase. Islam became a complete system of oversight for the market and the state.
All these processes lead to the expansion of the moral circle. The logic of non-zero-sum games forces cooperation with an ever-growing group of people. Religions function here as operating manuals for social systems, internalizing negative externalities. Divine prohibitions, such as "thou shalt not steal," reduce the costs of protecting property and enable complex civilizations to function without an excessive apparatus of coercion.
Game Theory, Business Ethics, and Community Optimization
Religion cannot be reduced solely to a tool of dominance. Logic dictates that systems lasting millennia must generate norms that favor cooperation. Game theory becomes the key to the hermeneutics of theological texts, revealing commandments as adaptive strategies. The sacred resolves the conflict between individual and community optimization by placing brakes on "rational egoism," which on a global scale leads to catastrophes such as financial or climate crises.
For modern business, religious ethics is becoming a new risk parameter. Secular ESG indicators are essentially an attempt to capture intuitions of justice and care for our "common home." Without being rooted in strong narratives of meaning, corporate ethics remains merely a facade. True systemic stability requires mechanisms of self-limitation, which religion describes as a covenant—a structure of trust that allows for the rejection of short-term profit to save the game as a whole.
Summary: A Civil Religion of Non-Zero-Sum Games
We must reject naive teleology—moral progress is not inevitable, and history has seen bloody regressions. We need a civil religion of non-zero-sum games: a global ethic in which individual success is a function of the success of the whole. God, understood as a name for the logic of the world, reminds us that another person is not a tool, but a co-participant in a shared fate. In a world of nuclear and ecological interdependence, the sacred becomes an imperative of cooperation upon which our survival depends.
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