Image Credit: Chris Stringer, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom
Our ancestors, such as Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo Naledi, Denisovans, Homo neanderthal, and more, had a sense of and belief in an afterlife. We know this from how they treated their dead by showing respect. Some of our predecessors buried their dead with food, weapons, decorations such as pigments to color the skin, feathers, and ornamental clothing or jewelry. That indicated that the deceased member of their tribe might need help crossing to the other side or might need to defend themselves. Also included were items they possibly could use for trade and other necessities. Homo naledi buried their dead in a specific place, such as a cave. With a very complex entry and multiple branches that would make it difficult for animals to find them. They positioned the body in a fetal position, perhaps indicating some ritualistic purpose such as returning to the present as they had arrived the first time, and they also decorated the site. Ritualistic behavior can also be surmised from cave art and hunting methods.
From where did this sense of early spiritual thinking come? My long-held belief (see my book The Jesus Gene) is that it was part of our genetic makeup, because we can see ritualistic behavior in pre-humans such as chimpanzees. After all, chimpanzees share 98.8% of DNA with us. Only 1.2% of our DNA differs between H. sapiens and Pan troglodytes, the scientific name for chimpanzees. We undoubtedly have common ancestors; just look at a baby chimpanzee, it is obvious!
Jane Goodall, who studied chimpanzees for much of her life, observed care for a deceased member of the tribe, with silent attendance punctuated by occasional hoots and screams. A common activity was to groom the dead body. Also, throwing stones at trees released anger and frustration. Chimpanzees have many other ritualistic activities not associated with death. When they come upon a waterfall, they stomp their feet in a repeating pattern and wander around the base of the falling water for hours, as if that might bring on more water from the sky. Chimpanzees can appreciate aesthetic beauty and may pause to watch a sunset. Since we cannot communicate with them, we do not know what they think, but their actions may speak louder than words. Elephants also share a strong sense of mourning for the dead by gathering around the deceased for a lengthy period of attendance that can last several weeks.
The earliest Homo sapiens appeared in Africa 300,000 years ago. They moved out of Africa starting around 100,000 years ago, related to the shift of Earth’s axis, which caused climate change. The lush green savannas and lakes of the Sahara dried up, prompting H. sapiens to follow the massive herds of animals as they moved north. We reached Europe 50,000 years ago. We met H. neanderthal and Denisovans and mixed our DNA, as evidenced by the presence of their DNA in ours. There is only one way that happens!
H. sapiens possessed a much stronger sense of pronounced belief in the afterlife and a sense of something beyond our immediate existence. The development of tools signals the brain’s ability to visualize how to shape a rock into a knife to cut, providing evidence of a higher-functioning brain that can understand as-yet-unseen things and their functions. Several genes have been linked to this ability of the brain to imagine things it has not yet experienced, that is, spiritual conceptualization: VMAT2 and SLCI8A2. These genes also exist in chimpanzees. It is not a great leap to see how this can serve as evidence of spiritual thinking and the eventual evolution toward thoughts of divinity. The development of language also furthered spiritual thinking and development, as communication made sharing ideas easier. It was not until the written word was invented that it all could be documented. It is clear to me that genetic signatures of earlier life forms from chimpanzees on to homo erectus, homo habilis, homo neanderthal, and us homo sapiens are what eventually evolved into the 4,200 religions, each one claiming to be the true one, which we now have.