CNRS,Institut Jean Nicod - Ecole Normale Supérieure,75005 Paris,
Behav Brain Sci. 2016 Jan;39:e2. doi: 10.1017/S0140525X15000321.
Today's major religions are moralizing religions that encourage material sacrifice for spiritual rewards. A key issue is whether moralizing religions gradually evolved over several millennia to enable cooperation among genetic strangers in the spiraling competition between increasingly large groups occupying Eurasia's middle latitudes, or whether they emerged only with the onset of the Axial Age, about 2,500 years ago, as societal wealth increased to allow privileging long-term goals over immediate needs.
当今的主要宗教是道德化宗教,鼓励为精神回报而进行物质牺牲。一个关键问题是,道德化宗教是否在几千年的时间里逐渐演变,从而使在欧亚大陆中纬度地区不断扩大的群体之间的螺旋式竞争中,基因不同的陌生人能够进行合作;还是说它们只是随着轴心时代的到来,大约在 2500 年前,才出现的,当时社会财富的增加使得人们能够优先考虑长期目标而不是眼前的需求。