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The '''historical origins of religion''' are to be distinguished from their [[psychology of religion|psychological]] or [[sociology of religion|social]] origins.<ref>Pals, Daniel L. 1996. Seven Theories of Religion. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508725-9, page 271</ref> The first [[religious behaviour]] appearing in the course of [[human evolution]] is probably relatively recent ([[Middle Paleolithic]]) and constitutes an aspect of [[behavioral modernity]] most likely coupled with the [[origin of language|appearance of language]].
{{for|the film based on the novel|The Day of the Triffids (1962 film)}}
{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = The Day of the Triffids
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = [[Image:JohnWyndham TheDayOfTheTriffids.jpg|200px|First edition hardback cover]]
| image_caption = First edition hardback cover
| author = [[John Wyndham (writer)|John Wyndham]]
| cover_artist =
| country = [[United Kingdom]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| series =
| genre = [[Science fiction novel]]
| publisher = [[Michael Joseph]]
| release_date = December 1951
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages = 304 pp (first edition, hardback)
| isbn = ISBN 0-7181-0093-X (first edition, hardback)
| preceded_by =
| followed_by = [[The Night of the Triffids]] (Unofficial)
}}


The further [[development of religion]] spans [[Neolithic religion]] and the beginning of religious history with the first documented [[religions of the Ancient Near East]] (the polytheistic cults of [[Egyptian pantheon|Egypt]] and [[Sumerian pantheon|Mesopotamia]]).
'''''The Day of the Triffids''''' is a [[Post-apocalyptic science fiction|post-apocalyptic]] novel written in [[1951]] by the [[English people|English]] science fiction author [[John Wyndham (writer)|John Wyndham]]. Although Wyndham had already written other novels, this was the first that he had written under this name and it appeared to be by a new author. It was this novel which established him as an important writer, and remains his best known.


== Hominid behavior ==
==Plot summary==
{{see|Chimpanzee spirituality|Sociobiology}}
[[Triffid]]s are (fictional) [[List of fictional plants|plants]] capable of animal-like behaviour: they feed on rotting meat, are able to uproot themselves and move about on their three "legs", possess a deadly [[whip]]-like poisonous [[sting (biology)|sting]], and appear to communicate with each other. The narrator and protagonist is Bill Masen, who has made his living working with Triffids. Being an expert on the subject, he speculates that they were deliberately [[bioengineering|bioengineered]] in the [[Soviet Union]], and that Triffid seeds were spread world-wide when an attempt was made to smuggle them out of Russia; the escaping plane is presumed to have been shot down, literally scattering the seeds to the winds. Whatever their origin, when Triffids began sprouting all over the world, their extracts proved to be radically superior to existing vegetable and animal oils. The result was a world-wide slew of Triffid farms, where the penned plants' stings were left intact as docking impaired the quality of their oil.
Scenarios employing [[Primatology|primatological]] evidence for the evolutionary development of religion are somewhat controversial.<ref>[http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3723/01/rutherford3723.pdf Matthew Rutherford. ''The Evolution of Morality''. University of Glasgow. 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2008]</ref>


Citing a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity, anthropologist Barbara King suggests that humanity’s closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, exhibit traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion in human beings. <ref>[http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/01/31/king/index.html Gods and Gorillas]</ref><ref name="king">King, Barbara (2007). Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing." ISBN 0385521553.</ref><ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385521550&view=excerpt Excerpted from Evolving God by Barbara J. King]</ref>
The narrative begins with Masen in hospital, his eyes bandaged after having been stung by a Triffid at one of the farms. He discovers that while he has been recovering, the light from an unusual [[meteor shower]] has rendered most people on Earth blind (Bill later muses that the shower may have been the misfiring of a space-based weapon system, though, as with the Triffids' origins, the truth is never revealed). After wandering aimlessly through [[London]], watching civilization collapsing around him, Masen rescues a sighted woman who is being used as an unwilling pair of eyes by a blinded man. She is novelist Josella Playton, whose work has earned her a notorious and mostly undeserved reputation. She and Masen quickly fall in love.


Primatologist [[Frans de Waal|Dr. Frans de Waal]] recognizes ''[[primate sociality]]'', which he describes as the nonhuman primate behaviors of empathy, the ability to learn and follow social rules, reciprocity and peacemaking, as a precursor of human morality. Arguing that human morality has two additional levels of sophistication with respect to primate sociality, he suggests only a distant connection between primate sociality and the human practice of religion. To de Waal, religion is a special ingredient of human societies that emerged thousands of years after morality. Commenting for an article in the New York Times he said, “I look at religions as recent additions [whose] function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them.” <ref>{{cite web| last =Wade | first =Nicholas| title =Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior | publisher =New York Times | date =March 20, 2007
A signal draws them to a larger group of sighted survivors led by a man named Michael Beadley, who are planning to flee London before it becomes a disease-ridden deathtrap, and establish a colony in the countryside. Beadley wishes to take only sighted men who will take several wives, both blind and sighted, to rapidly rebuild a sighted human population. The polygamous principles of this scheme appall the religious Miss Durrant.
| url =http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/science/20moral.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
| accessdate =2008-07-29 }}</ref>


Psychologist Matt J. Rossano argues that religion emerged after morality, and built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever watchful ancestors, spirits and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.<ref name="supernature">
However, these distinctions become irrelevant after a man called Wilfred Coker takes it upon himself to save as many of the blind as possible; he stages a disturbance and kidnaps a number of sighted including Bill and Josella. Both are forcibly put to work leading squads of blind people around the rapidly-decaying city, attempting to collect food and supplies. Bill finds himself sandwiched between roving packs of Triffids and a rival gang of scavengers led by a sighted (and ruthless) red-haired man.
{{cite journal
|last=Rossano
|first=Matt
|title=Supernaturalizing Social Life: Religion and the Evolution of Human Cooperation
|year=2007
|url=http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/mrossano/recentpubs/Supernaturalizing.pdf}}
</ref>


==Paleolithic religion==
Masen nevertheless sticks with his group out of a sense of responsibility, until the people in his charge begin dying of some unknown disease (possibly yet another military experiment gone awry). He leaves and attempts to find Josella, but his only immediate lead is an address left behind by the uncaptured and now-departed members of Beadley's group. Thrown together with a repentant Coker, he sets out for the address in [[Wiltshire]]. They find the place, a country estate named Tynsham, but the group has splintered and neither Beadley nor Josella are there; Durrant has taken charge and organised the community along monogamous "Christian" lines. Assuming that Josella went with the Beadley party, Masen and Coker search fruitlessly for several days, rounding up some more sighted survivors. Then, remembering a chance comment Josella made earlier about a certain country home in [[Sussex]], Bill sets off in search of it, while Coker takes their new companions back to Tynsham.
{{see|Paleolithic religion}}
Evidence of religious behaviour in pre-''Homo sapiens'' [[Homo (genus)|early humans]] is inconclusive.
Intentional [[burial]], particularly with [[grave goods]] may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since, as [[Philip Lieberman]] suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life."<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|isbn=0674921836| year=1991| authorlink=Philip Lieberman}}</ref> Though disputed, evidence suggests that the [[Neanderthals]] were the first [[Hominidae|hominids]] to intentionally bury the dead. Exemplary sites include [[Shanidar]] in Iraq, [[Kebara Cave]] in Israel and [[Krapina]] in Croatia. Some scholars, however argue that these bodies may have been disposed of for [[secular]] reasons.<ref name="evolving_graves">[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_24_160/ai_81827792/pg_1 Evolving in their graves: early burials hold clues to human origins - research of burial rituals of Neanderthals]</ref> Likewise a number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of [[totemism]] or [[animal worship]] in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread [[Middle Paleolithic]] Neanderthal [[bear cult]] existed.


The evolution of religion is closely connected with the evolution of the mind and [[behavioral modernity]].<ref name="rossano">{{cite web|title=The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religious Forms|url=http://www.metanexus.net/conference2005/pdf/rossano.pdf|quote=The interplay of religious evolution and mind reveals that even as religion and society evolve, the basic psychological functions of religion remain intact, though expressed in different modes|pages=14. }}</ref> Evidence for [[paleolithic burials]] is often taken as the earliest expression of religious or mythological thought involving an [[afterlife]]. Such practice is not restricted to ''[[archaic Homo sapiens|Homo sapiens]]'', but also found among ''[[Homo neanderthalensis]]'' as least as early as 130,000 years ago. The emergence of religious behaviour is consequently dated to before [[early human migrations|separation of early ''Homo sapiens'']] some 150,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of symbolic ritual activity besides burials may be a site in South Africa dated to 70,000 years ago.<ref>{{Citation
The Triffids quickly take full advantage of the edge over humanity that events have given them. Specimens in captivity break free, and growing numbers of them become bolder and more aggressive every day. Bill is joined by a young sighted girl named Susan, who had become a near-prisoner in her home due to the plants. They succeed in locating Josella, who is sheltering at the described house with the blinded owners. Bill and Josella consider themselves to be married, and see Susan as their daughter. Learning that Tynsham has been abandoned, the group attempts to create a self-sufficient colony on the Sussex farm, but with only marginal success. The Triffids grow ever more numerous, crowding in and surrounding their small island of civilization. Years pass, during which it becomes steadily harder to keep out the encroaching plants and more difficult to scavenge food.
|url=http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/2006_4/Artikler/python_english
|title=World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago
|publisher=apollon.uio.no
|accessdate=[[2007-12-22]]}}</ref>


==Anthropology==
One day a [[helicopter]]-pilot representative of Beadley's faction lands at the farm and tells his hosts that the group has largely cleared the [[Isle of Wight]] of Triffids, and established a successful colony there (and that Coker survived to join them). Despite their ongoing struggles, the Masens are reluctant to leave their home, but their hand is forced by the arrival the next day of a large armored vehicle, operated by a squad of soldiers who represent a despotic new government which is setting up feudal enclaves across the country. Masen recognizes the leader, Torrence, as the redheaded man from London. When Torrence announces his intention to place many more blind survivors under the Masens' care, they are appalled. To ensure compliance with his scheme, Torrence suggests Susan will be moved to another enclave. After feigning general agreement, the Masens and their group disable the soldiers' vehicle and flee in the night. They join the Isle of Wight colony, and settle down to the long grim struggle ahead, determined to find a way to destroy the Triffids and reclaim Earth for humanity.


{{main|Anthropology of religion|Indigenous religion}}
==Publication history==
In the United States, the 1951 copyright was attained by [[Doubleday & Company]], Inc.. A 1951 condensed version of the book also appeared in [[Colliers Magazine]].


Though religious behaviour varies widely between the world's cultures, in its widest sense religion is a [[cultural universal]] found in all human populations. Common elements include:
An unabridged paperback edition was published in the late 1960s in arrangement with Doubleday by [[Fawcett Publications]] World Library, under its Crest Book imprint. <ref>John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, paperback edition title page, Fawcett Crest Book #449-01322-075, 6th printing, April 1970</ref>
*a notion of the [[transcendence|transcendent]], [[supernatural]] or [[numinous]], usually involving entities like [[ghost]]s, [[demon]]s or [[deity|deities]], and practices involving [[Magic and religion|magic]] and [[divination]].
*an aspect of [[ritual]] and [[liturgy]], almost invariably involving [[prehistoric music|music]] and [[dance]]
*societal norms of [[morality]] (''[[ethos]]'') and [[virtue]] (''[[arete]]'')
*a set of [[myths]] or sacred [[religious truth|truth]]s or [[religious belief|beliefs]]


===Psychology of religion===
==Influences==
*Wyndham was influenced by [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' in writing ''The Day of the Triffids'' and frequently admitted such.<ref>As described in [[Edmund Morris (writer)|Edmund Morris]]' [[2003]] introduction</ref>
*In regards to the Triffids' creation, some editions of the novel make brief mention of the theories of the would-be Soviet biologist [[Trofim Lysenko]]; eventually thoroughly debunked, [[Lysenkoism]] at the time of the novel's creation was still being defended by some prominent international communists.


{{See also|Psychology of religion|Evolutionary psychology of religion|Neurotheology}}
==Themes==
The novel contains many themes which are common in Wyndham's work: a depiction of the [[Soviet Union]] as an opaque, inscrutable menace, a central problem made worse by human greed and bickering, and a firm determination on the part of the author to not explicitly detail the origin of the threat faced by the protagonists. In addition, there is a rather central theme to the book—the survival and rebuilding of humankind.


[[Evolutionary psychology]] is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs and immune systems, [[cognition]] has functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore evolved by [[natural selection]]. Like organs, this functional structure should be universally shared and should solve important problems of survival. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand cognitive processes by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might serve.
==Critical reception==


===Psychological processes===
''The Day of the Triffids'' was cited by [[Karl Edward Wagner]] as one of the thirteen best science-fiction horror novels.<ref>N. G. Christakos, "Three By Thirteen: The Karl Edward Wagner Lists" in ''Black Prometheus: A Critical Study of Karl Edward Wagner'', ed. Benjamin Szumskyj, [[Gothic Press]] 2007.</ref> [[Arthur C. Clarke]] called it an "immortal story".<ref>[http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw19051.html Interview - SciFi.com]</ref>
The cognitive psychology of religion is a new field of inquiry which attempts to account for the psychological processes that underlie religious thought and practice. In his book ''Religion Explained'', [[Pascal Boyer]] asserts there is no simple explanation for religious consciousness. Boyer is concerned with the various psychological processes involved in ideas concerning the gods. Boyer builds on the ideas of cognitive anthropologists [[Dan Sperber]] and [[Scott Atran]], who first argued that religious cognition represents a by-product of various evolutionary adaptations, including [[folk psychology]], and purposeful human constructs about the world (for example, bodiless beings with thoughts and emotions) that make religious cognitions striking and memorable.


===Cognitive studies===
In his book ''Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction'', Brian Aldiss coined the term [[cosy catastrophe]] to describe the subgenre of post-war apocalyptic fiction in which society is destroyed save for a handful of survivors, who are able to enjoy a relatively comfortable existence. He specifically singled out ''The Day of the Triffids'' as an example of this genre.
There is general agreement among cognitive scientists that religion is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved early in human history. However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary byproduct of other mental adaptations. [[Stephen Jay Gould]], for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a [[spandrel (biology)|Spandrel]], in other words that religion evolved as byproduct of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons.<ref name="henig">[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/magazine/04evolution.t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&adxnnlx=1198041076-kbd5/%20mI61KP62dWEBFr6Q A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God]</ref><ref>[http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~ara/religion%20seminar%20papers/Kirkpatrick_1999.pdf Toward an evolutionary psychology of religion and personality]</ref><ref name="pinker">[http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2004_10_29_religion.htm The evolutionary psychology of religion] [[Steven Pinker]]</ref>
Such mechanisms may include: the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events ([[aitiology]]), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions ([[theory of mind]]). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, etc.<ref>{{Citation
|url=http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Atran-12172002/Referees/
|title=Religion's Evolutionary Landscape [[Scott Atran]] [[Ara Norenzayan]]}}</ref>


For [[Steven Pinker]] the universal propensity toward religious belief is a genuine scientific puzzle. He thinks that [[adaptationist]] explanations for religion do not meet the criteria for adaptations, and that religious psychology is indeed a by-product of many parts of the mind that evolved because they aided survival in other ways.
==Allusions/references in other works==


==Genetics==
*Triffids are referenced in the opening number of the stage/film [[musical theatre|musical]] ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]:'' "''I really got hot when I saw [[Janette Scott]] fight a triffid that spits poison and kills.''" Janette Scott played the role of Karen Goodwin in the 1962 film adaptation.
{{see|God gene}}
*[[The Triffids]] is also the name of an [[Australia]]n rock group from the 1980s.
Some scholars have suggested that religion is genetically "hardwired" into the human condition. One controversial hypothesis, the [[God gene]] hypothesis, states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted as religious revelation. One gene claimed to be of this nature is [[VMAT2]].
*In the computer game ''[[Darwinia (computer game)|Darwinia]]'' there is an immobile enemy unit called a triffid that looks like a flower and spits dangerous seeds.
*The film ''[[28 Days Later]]'' features several nods to ''The Day of the Triffids'', including the protagonist awakening in a deserted hospital, finding other survivors by following tower lights, and encountering a paramilitary group in a country house whose plans include the acquisition of women with whom to repopulate the country.<ref name="guardian2">{{Cite web|url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,2073292,00.html|title=A capital place for panic attacks|accessdate=2007-05-12|publisher=Guardian News and Media Limited|year=2007|author=Mark Kermode|format=html}}</ref>
*The band [[Gorillaz]] have a reference to a triffid on the band's official website. Upon further inspection of band member Murdoc's trailer in the Kong Studio parking garage, you'll find a triffid as a potted plant. When you place your cursor over it, it makes a strange noise and the subtext states, "Absolutely Triffid".
*The band [[Ash (band)|Ash]] have a song titled "Day of the Triffids" on their album [[Trailer (album)|Trailer]].
*The game [[AVATAR (MUD)]] has an area (Redtooth's Isle) that contains a few triffids as aggressive enemies.
*The game [[Kingdom of Loathing]] has a triffid as an enemy encounter in "The Spooky Forest."
*In the [[Area 52]] sequence of ''[[Looney Tunes Back in Action]]'', a [[Triffid]] can be seen among the aliens housed there.
*Episode 6 of the [[anime]] series ''[[Princess Resurrection]]'' (Kaibutsu Oujo) features a walking plant named a Triffid. It has many differences from those in the book, however.
*In the computer game [[Star Control II]], a [[Supox]] captain is named "Trifid".
*In the Marvel comic "New Universal" #1 one of the main characters references ''The Day of the Trifids'' saying "Bright light in the sky.Everyone looks. In the morning everyone who looks is blind then, big walking plants sting all the blind people to death.The end."
*In the webcomic [[Friendly Hostility]], the character Mr. Rudd has a pet triffid.
*TRIFFID is the name of the UK [[Hadley Centre]]'s "dynamic vegetation" computer model of the terrestrial [[carbon cycle]].
*In the [[Anno Dracula]] story "The Other Side of Midnight", a Triffid (called "triffidus celestus mobile") appears in a plant shop along with "[[The Little Shop of Horrors|audriensis junior]]" and "[[Werewolf of London|mariphasa lupino lumino]]".
*In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier]]'', a Triffid is one of the specimens in an alien zoo on the Isle of Wight.
* In one of [[Małgorzata Musierowicz]]'s books, ''Szósta klepka'', one of characters is reading this book.
* In "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Pulitzer Prize winner and writer Junot Díaz.


==Language and religion==
==Film, TV, radio or theatrical adaptations==
{{see also|origin of language|myth and religion}}
The novel was adapted to radio (readings) by the BBC as early as 1953. Dramatizations [[The Day of the Triffids (radio)|BBC radio series]] followed in 1957 and 1968 ([[Giles Cooper]]). The same year it was adopted in Germany by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Köln (Cologne), translator: [[Hein Bruehl]] (latest re-broadcast as a 4-episode series on WDR5 in January 2008). Further BBC productions followed in 1971, 1973 and 1980, the first television version was produced in 1981.
A number of scholars have suggested that the evolution of language was a prerequisite for the origin of religion.<ref name="sverker">{{cite journal
| quotes = | last = Johansson | first = Sverker | year = 2004 | title = Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses
| doi =10.1017/S002222670629409X | url = http://www.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/pro/SverkerJohansson-sem.pdf
| quote = A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). | journal = Journal of Linguistics | volume = 42 | pages = 486
}}</ref>
[[Philip Lieberman]] states "[h]uman religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base," and that the presence of burial and grave artifacts indicate that early humans had distinctive cognitive abilities different from chimpanzees.<ref name="lieberman">{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=3tS2MULo5rYC&pg=PA162&dq=Uniquely+Human+cognitive-linguistic+base&ei=nNUeR9fmBo74pwKwtKnMDg&sig=3UsvgAnE5B-vzb55I6W6OqqhJy4| title=Uniquely Human|isbn=0674921836| year=1991| first=Philip |last=Lieberman|authorlink=Philip Lieberman}}</ref> From this, science writer [[Nicholas Wade]] concludes that religious behavior was present in human populations preceding the [[Recent African origin of modern humans|out of Africa]] migration some 60,000 years ago.<ref>*"[[Nicholas Wade|Wade, Nicholas]] - ''Before The Dawn, Discovering the lost history of our ancestors''. Penguin Books, London, 2006. p. 8 p. 165" ISBN 1594200793</ref><ref name="sverker">{{cite journal
| quotes = | last = Johansson | first = Sverker | year = 2004 | title = Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses
| doi =10.1017/S002222670629409X | url = http://www.arthist.lu.se/kultsem/pro/SverkerJohansson-sem.pdf
| quote = A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). | journal = Journal of Linguistics | volume = 42 | pages = 486
}}</ref>


==References==
A [[The Day of the Triffids (1962 film)|film version]] of this story was produced in the [[United Kingdom|UK]] and released in [[1962 in film|1962]].
{{reflist|2}}


==Literature==
The story was turned into a [[The Day of the Triffids (TV series)|BBC television]] [[British TV serial|serial]] in [[1981]], repeated on [[BBC Four]] in 2006 and Summer 2007. It starred [[John Duttine]] as Bill Masen. In [[2001]] writer [[Lance Dann]] adapted the series in two hour long episodes for the [[BBC World Service]]
*Churchward, Albert. (1924) ''The Origin and Evolution of Religion'' (2003 reprint: ISBN 978-1930097506).
*Cooke, George Willis. (1920) ''The Social Evolution of Religion''.
*Hefner, Philip. (1993) ''The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion''. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
*Hopkins, E. Washburn. (1923) ''Origin and Evolution of Religion''
*King, Barbara. (2007) ''Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion.'' Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 0385521553.
*Lewis-Williams, David (2002) ''The mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art.'' Thames & Hudson, ISBN: 0500051178
*Mithen, Steve. (1996) ''The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science.'' Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05081-3.
*{{Citation
|last=McClenon
|first=James
|title=Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion
|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HRUHHQAACAAJ
|publisher=Northern Illinois University Press |year=2002
|isbn=0875802842}} {[http://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/2002/2002-r10.html Reviewed here by Journal of Religion & Society])
*Parchment, S. R. (2005) "Religion And Its Effect Upon Human Evolution", in: ''Just Law of Compensation'' ISBN 1564596796.
*Reichardt, E. Noel. (1942) Significance of Ancient Religions in Relation to Human Evolution and Brain Development
*Wade, Nicholas. (2006) ''Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors''. The Penguin Press ISBN 1-59420-079-3.
*[[Alfred North Whitehead]] (1926) ''Religion in the Making''. 1974, New American Library. 1996, with introduction by Judith A. Jones, Fordham Univ. Press.
*[[Lewis Wolpert|Wolpert, Lewis]]. (2007) ''Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief.'' New York:W.W. Norton.


==See also==
In 1975, [[Marvel Comics]] adapted the story in the magazine ''[[Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction]]''.
*[[International Association for the Scientific Study of Religion]]

*[[Behavioral modernity]]
==References==
*[[Cognitive fluidity]]
{{Reflist}}
*[[God gene]]
*''[[Homo necans]]''
*[[Hunting hypothesis]]
*[[Magical thinking]]
*[[Mickey Mouse Problem]]
*[[Neurotheology]]
*[[Paleolithic burial]]
*[[Psychology of religion]]
*[[Social Evolution]]
*[[Religion and mythology]]
*[[Sociology of religion]]
*[[Theories of religion]]
*[[Claims to the oldest religion]]


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.iacsr.com IACSR - International Association for the Scientific Study of Religion]
*[http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/l.j.hurst/weredead.htm Essay by L.J. Hurst]
*[http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~agorman/pdf/mithen-review.pdf The Prehistory of the Mind The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science By Steven Mithen Reviewed by Andy Gorman]
*[http://triffids.wuthering-heights.co.uk/ Reader's Guide to The Day of the Triffids]
*{{cite web|title=The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religious Forms|url=http://www.metanexus.net/conference2005/pdf/rossano.pdf|quote=|pages=}}

*[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20070204/ai_n17200714 Religion, empathy and a Brookfield Zoo gorilla: An anthropologist] Chicago Sun-Times, Feb 4,
{{John Wyndham}}


*[http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195098919 Stewart Guthrie Faces in the clouds A New Theory of Religion] ISBN 0195098919].
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day of the Triffids, The}}
*[http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2004_10_29_religion.htm Evolutionary psychology of religion] [[Steven Pinker]].
*[http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/comm/haselton/webdocs/spandrels.html Adaptations, Exaptations, and Spandrels]
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=7-3UvJk5XY8C&pg=PA235&dq=religion+exaptation&ei=IbtoR5iaD4v8sQOgn62-Ag&sig=zzFvCIcvIULWFyXx8ED5tEfh0tc#PPA238,M1 Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion ] ISBN 1593850883
*[[Scott Atran|Atran, Scott]] [http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195178033/ In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion ] ISBN 0195178033
*[http://www.biu.ac.il/SOC/ps/docs/diesendruck/9.pdf Religious thought and behaviour as by-products of brain function ] [[Pascal Boyer]]
*[http://books.google.com/books?id=o4J2AjN2JXAC&pg=PA43&dq=todd+tremlin&sig=JLt0_heOblsS4etSaWM-scLFAw8#PPA16,M1 Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion By Todd Tremlin], 2006 ISBN 0195305345


[[Category:1951 novels]]
[[Category:Evolutionary psychology|Religion]]
[[Category:British science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Human evolution|Religion]]
[[Category:Post-apocalyptic novels]]
[[Category:History of religion]]
[[Category:Novels by John Wyndham]]
[[Category:Paleolithic|Religion]]
[[Category:Religion and science]]
[[Category:Study of religion]]


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[[fi:Uskonnon alkuperä]]
[[cy:The Day of the Triffids]]
[[da:Da trifitterne kom]]
[[de:Die Triffids]]
[[es:El día de los trífidos]]
[[fr:Le Jour des Triffides]]
[[it:Il giorno dei trifidi]]
[[nl:The Day of the Triffids]]
[[ja:トリフィド時代]]
[[ru:День триффидов]]
[[sv:Triffidernas dag]]

Revision as of 22:53, 12 October 2008

The historical origins of religion are to be distinguished from their psychological or social origins.[1] The first religious behaviour appearing in the course of human evolution is probably relatively recent (Middle Paleolithic) and constitutes an aspect of behavioral modernity most likely coupled with the appearance of language.

The further development of religion spans Neolithic religion and the beginning of religious history with the first documented religions of the Ancient Near East (the polytheistic cults of Egypt and Mesopotamia).

Hominid behavior

Further information: Chimpanzee spirituality and Sociobiology

Scenarios employing primatological evidence for the evolutionary development of religion are somewhat controversial.[2]

Citing a capacity for symbolic communication, a sense of social norms, realization of "self", and a concept of continuity, anthropologist Barbara King suggests that humanity’s closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos, exhibit traits that would have been necessary for the evolution of religion in human beings. [3][4][5]

Primatologist Dr. Frans de Waal recognizes primate sociality, which he describes as the nonhuman primate behaviors of empathy, the ability to learn and follow social rules, reciprocity and peacemaking, as a precursor of human morality. Arguing that human morality has two additional levels of sophistication with respect to primate sociality, he suggests only a distant connection between primate sociality and the human practice of religion. To de Waal, religion is a special ingredient of human societies that emerged thousands of years after morality. Commenting for an article in the New York Times he said, “I look at religions as recent additions [whose] function may have to do with social life, and enforcement of rules and giving a narrative to them.” [6]

Psychologist Matt J. Rossano argues that religion emerged after morality, and built upon morality by expanding the social scrutiny of individual behavior to include supernatural agents. By including ever watchful ancestors, spirits and gods in the social realm, humans discovered an effective strategy for restraining selfishness and building more cooperative groups.[7]

Paleolithic religion

Further information: Paleolithic religion

Evidence of religious behaviour in pre-Homo sapiens early humans is inconclusive. Intentional burial, particularly with grave goods may be one of the earliest detectable forms of religious practice since, as Philip Lieberman suggests, it may signify a "concern for the dead that transcends daily life."[8] Though disputed, evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first hominids to intentionally bury the dead. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Some scholars, however argue that these bodies may have been disposed of for secular reasons.[9] Likewise a number of archeologists propose that Middle Paleolithic societies such as Neanderthal societies may also have practiced the earliest form of totemism or animal worship in addition to their (presumably religious) burial of the dead. Emil Bächler in particular suggests (based on archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves) that a widespread Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal bear cult existed.

The evolution of religion is closely connected with the evolution of the mind and behavioral modernity.[10] Evidence for paleolithic burials is often taken as the earliest expression of religious or mythological thought involving an afterlife. Such practice is not restricted to Homo sapiens, but also found among Homo neanderthalensis as least as early as 130,000 years ago. The emergence of religious behaviour is consequently dated to before separation of early Homo sapiens some 150,000 years ago. The earliest evidence of symbolic ritual activity besides burials may be a site in South Africa dated to 70,000 years ago.[11]

Anthropology

Main articles: Anthropology of religion and Indigenous religion

Though religious behaviour varies widely between the world's cultures, in its widest sense religion is a cultural universal found in all human populations. Common elements include:

Psychology of religion

See also: Psychology of religion, Evolutionary psychology of religion, and Neurotheology

Evolutionary psychology is based on the hypothesis that, just like hearts, lungs and immune systems, cognition has functional structure that has a genetic basis, and therefore evolved by natural selection. Like organs, this functional structure should be universally shared and should solve important problems of survival. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand cognitive processes by understanding the survival and reproductive functions they might serve.

Psychological processes

The cognitive psychology of religion is a new field of inquiry which attempts to account for the psychological processes that underlie religious thought and practice. In his book Religion Explained, Pascal Boyer asserts there is no simple explanation for religious consciousness. Boyer is concerned with the various psychological processes involved in ideas concerning the gods. Boyer builds on the ideas of cognitive anthropologists Dan Sperber and Scott Atran, who first argued that religious cognition represents a by-product of various evolutionary adaptations, including folk psychology, and purposeful human constructs about the world (for example, bodiless beings with thoughts and emotions) that make religious cognitions striking and memorable.

Cognitive studies

There is general agreement among cognitive scientists that religion is an outgrowth of brain architecture that evolved early in human history. However, there is disagreement on the exact mechanisms that drove the evolution of the religious mind. The two main schools of thought hold that either religion evolved due to natural selection and has selective advantage, or that religion is an evolutionary byproduct of other mental adaptations. Stephen Jay Gould, for example, believed that religion was an exaptation or a Spandrel, in other words that religion evolved as byproduct of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other reasons.[12][13][14] Such mechanisms may include: the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm (agent detection), the ability to come up with causal narratives for natural events (aitiology), and the ability to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions (theory of mind). These three adaptations (among others) allow human beings to imagine purposeful agents behind many observations that could not readily be explained otherwise, e.g. thunder, lightning, movement of planets, complexity of life, etc.[15]

For Steven Pinker the universal propensity toward religious belief is a genuine scientific puzzle. He thinks that adaptationist explanations for religion do not meet the criteria for adaptations, and that religious psychology is indeed a by-product of many parts of the mind that evolved because they aided survival in other ways.

Genetics

Further information: God gene

Some scholars have suggested that religion is genetically "hardwired" into the human condition. One controversial hypothesis, the God gene hypothesis, states that some human beings bear a gene which gives them a predisposition to episodes interpreted as religious revelation. One gene claimed to be of this nature is VMAT2.

Language and religion

See also: origin of language and myth and religion

A number of scholars have suggested that the evolution of language was a prerequisite for the origin of religion.[16] Philip Lieberman states "[h]uman religious thought and moral sense clearly rest on a cognitive-linguistic base," and that the presence of burial and grave artifacts indicate that early humans had distinctive cognitive abilities different from chimpanzees.[8] From this, science writer Nicholas Wade concludes that religious behavior was present in human populations preceding the out of Africa migration some 60,000 years ago.[17][16]

References

  1. ^ Pals, Daniel L. 1996. Seven Theories of Religion. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508725-9, page 271
  2. ^ Matthew Rutherford. The Evolution of Morality. University of Glasgow. 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2008
  3. ^ Gods and Gorillas
  4. ^ King, Barbara (2007). Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing." ISBN 0385521553.
  5. ^ Excerpted from Evolving God by Barbara J. King
  6. ^ Wade, Nicholas (March 20, 2007). "Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
  7. ^ Rossano, Matt (2007). "Supernaturalizing Social Life: Religion and the Evolution of Human Cooperation" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ a b Uniquely Human. 1991. ISBN 0674921836. Cite error: The named reference "lieberman" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  9. ^ Evolving in their graves: early burials hold clues to human origins - research of burial rituals of Neanderthals
  10. ^ "The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religious Forms" (PDF). p. 14. The interplay of religious evolution and mind reveals that even as religion and society evolve, the basic psychological functions of religion remain intact, though expressed in different modes
  11. ^ World’s oldest ritual discovered. Worshipped the python 70,000 years ago, apollon.uio.no, retrieved 2007-12-22 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  12. ^ A scientific exploration of how we have come to believe in God
  13. ^ Toward an evolutionary psychology of religion and personality
  14. ^ The evolutionary psychology of religion Steven Pinker
  15. ^ Religion's Evolutionary Landscape [[Scott Atran]] [[Ara Norenzayan]] {{citation}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  16. ^ a b Johansson, Sverker (2004). "Origins of language—constraints on hypotheses" (PDF). Journal of Linguistics. 42: 486. doi:10.1017/S002222670629409X. A related argument is that of Barnes (1997), who postulates language as a requirement for religion, for much the same reasons as for art — religion requires the ability to reason symbolically about abstract categories. Müller (1866) proposed instead a more direct role for religion in the origin of language, with religious awe as the root of the need for speech (Gans, 1999c). {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |quotes= (help)
  17. ^ *"Wade, Nicholas - Before The Dawn, Discovering the lost history of our ancestors. Penguin Books, London, 2006. p. 8 p. 165" ISBN 1594200793

Literature

  • Churchward, Albert. (1924) The Origin and Evolution of Religion (2003 reprint: ISBN 978-1930097506).
  • Cooke, George Willis. (1920) The Social Evolution of Religion.
  • Hefner, Philip. (1993) The Human Factor: Evolution, Culture, and Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.
  • Hopkins, E. Washburn. (1923) Origin and Evolution of Religion
  • King, Barbara. (2007) Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion. Doubleday Publishing. ISBN 0385521553.
  • Lewis-Williams, David (2002) The mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art. Thames & Hudson, ISBN: 0500051178
  • Mithen, Steve. (1996) The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05081-3.
  • McClenon, James (2002), Wondrous Healing: Shamanism, Human Evolution, and the Origin of Religion, Northern Illinois University Press, ISBN 0875802842 {Reviewed here by Journal of Religion & Society)
  • Parchment, S. R. (2005) "Religion And Its Effect Upon Human Evolution", in: Just Law of Compensation ISBN 1564596796.
  • Reichardt, E. Noel. (1942) Significance of Ancient Religions in Relation to Human Evolution and Brain Development
  • Wade, Nicholas. (2006) Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. The Penguin Press ISBN 1-59420-079-3.
  • Alfred North Whitehead (1926) Religion in the Making. 1974, New American Library. 1996, with introduction by Judith A. Jones, Fordham Univ. Press.
  • Wolpert, Lewis. (2007) Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief. New York:W.W. Norton.

See also

External links

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