Dogs are pack hunter wolves that became Homo sapiens best friends. The wild dogs in Africa are pack hunters whose packs must out number their enemies by 3 to 1, because their enemies are always bigger then they are, if they are to survive. Homo sapiens needed weapons and bands of larger and larger groups to survive. Over the last hundred thousand years, religion evolved to make small bands into ever larger tribes.

As Torah tells us: ” God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea; the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Genesis 1:28)

Since the time of Aristotle philosophers have thought that mankind’s ability to use tools was what made humans unique. However, we now know that many different species (including birds) use tools, and Chimps not only use tools but also make at least three different kinds of tools for different functions.

So if tool making, culture, self awareness and language do not distinguish humans from our nearest primate relatives, what makes humans what we are? I offer human religious spirituality as an answer.

For almost all of the last 200,000 years Homo Sapiens were small group, hierarchically organized, social primates. Although biological evolution occurs in individuals, any genes that enable the group (extended family and/or band) to function better as a group, will contribute to individual survival rates and reproductive success within the group.

If one takes seriously the Torah’s claim that humanity was created in the Divine image, or the Qur’an statement that humans were created to be vice-regents with God, spiritual evolution testifies to the creation of creatures who are social co-creators of purpose driven non-material responses to environmental and social challenges.

Among the earliest Gods were birth Goddesses. Small stone figures of very pregnant birth Goddesses often referred to as “Venus” figures go back 30-35,000 years. They are the first examples of iconic religion. The worship of spirits within natural phenomena does not need iconic representation. But birth rarely took place in the open or in public.

The birth Goddess needed to be present in some tangible way in order to ease the anxiety of women in labor. Even today in some African countries the maternal mortality rate is 3% per birth. A woman who gave birth to 8 children had a one in four chance of dying from giving birth. Any band would benefit even if the presence of Goddesses reduced that mortality rate by only 5%. Carvings in wood of birth Goddesses probably preceded stone statues by many millennia and may have originated 50-100,000 years ago.........

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