Religion of the Apes

[Superhobo]

Religion of the Apes

— Christian Sheppard

Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo recently hosted a conference on chimpanzee cognition and culture, "The Mind of the Chimpanzee." The most recent research confirms that chimpanzees possess a sense of self, a theory of mind, strong memory, empathy, politics, and culture. One further question to ask is whether our fellow apes also possess religion.

Jane Goodall has posed this question. She observed long ago that, during the rainy season, male chimpanzees display before the storm's thunder, lightning, wind, and rain by beating their chests, pulling down branches, and shaking the limbs and trunks of trees while hooting and screaming. Such displays usually mean to convey strength to rivals. Goodall speculates that this "rain dance" behavior might be an attempt to get the storm to stop. Chimpanzees in different communities exhibit behaviors that are unique to their time and place, for example, fishing for termites with sticks or using stones to break branches. Ethological observations of such cultural behavior have been corroborated by laboratory experiments. The rain dance behavior has since been observed in other, though not all, wild chimpanzee groups, and so is properly considered cultural. Might it also be religious?

For humans, thunderstorms are a traditional inspiration for religion. Giambattista Vico speculated that religion began with our early ancestors' terror at the lightning and thunder of Zeus. In the summer of 1505, Martin Luther, terrified by a lightning storm, cried, "Help, Saint Anna, I will become a monk" and, true to his word, entered the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. James Joyce, when asked why he was afraid of thunder when his children weren't, said, "Ah, they have no religion." In this spirit, Lucretius asserted that religion begins in fear.

Goodall, however, offers an alternative beginning: "With a display of strength such as [the rain dance], primitive man himself might have challenged the elements." The chimpanzees' response, courageously facing the fearful unknown of the storm, is exemplary. As Aristotle observed, courage is the first virtue, without which all others are moot. Jane Goodall showed personal courage in facing dangerous apes in the wild as well as in working in an African political climate that was not always safe. Goodall also showed intellectual courage in resisting the biases of her contemporaries, and holding to her own observations and the resulting intuitions that apes possess intelligence and emotion akin to our own. She persevered with groundbreaking work that has found its fruition in the research results and the careers exhibited at the Lincoln Park Zoo conference.

With the kind of courage exhibited by Goodall — physical, intellectual, and spiritual — a better kind of religious sensibility may be cultivated. We need a piety that seeks greater understanding of our essential links to nature, a piety that fosters wonder. Wonder, as Plato said, is the beginning of philosophy, and philosophy yet may be the handmaid of religion.

Freud, the second large male in Goodall's group in Gombe, may be our guide. Freud was observed "rain dancing" furiously not in a storm but in front of a powerful waterfall. Afterwards he sat still for a long time and seemed to contemplate the torrent. Might Freud after his courageous display be in his way wondering at the fall's ceaseless and mighty torrent?

Goodall has eloquently argued that religion and science need not be separate; indeed, they must inform one another. The scientific study of chimpanzees allows us to reflect upon a kind of consciousness akin to our own. When those intelligent and passionate fellow apes look up at a random and violent force and challenge that force with their own strength, we can recognize and ought to respect a better part of ourselves that still has the courage to face the always wonderful but often terrifying unknown in nature.

Evolutionary biology has demonstrated how great a role random violence has played in creating our current nature's order, however beautiful it is. We are a part of this natural world. It is this essential connection to the natural order that makes it intelligible to us. We can come to understand it better if, to our ape brethren, we may be brave enough to say: I will praise thee, for I too am fearfully and wonderfully made.

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/archive_2007/0726.shtml

 

[Addendum]

 

[Asteroid-Man]

ok guys come on, Monkey's are intelligent and have a VERY basic morality but it's just acting on instinct. Animals can detect storms before they happen, and trying to stop it by stomping and screaming doesn't mean they are religious beings with souls. I believe they have spirits and that they are very smart but this is way tooooo much we're giving them for granted.

 

[Prison Mike]

you don't think animals have souls?

 

[Superhobo]

ok guys come on, Monkey's are intelligent and have a VERY basic morality but it's just acting on instinct. Animals can detect storms before they happen, and trying to stop it by stomping and screaming doesn't mean they are religious beings with souls. I believe they have spirits and that they are very smart but this is way tooooo much we're giving them for granted.

Well, no - Apes, to say nothing of a lot of other species, actually have pretty complex societies, to say nothing of their morality. I've said this probably a hundred times on here, and given links, so I'm not going to do it again. Google's a great help, though. Do some reading.

So, going by your argument, that they're trying to 'stop the storm' by instinct, what could the case be with the solemn ape before the waterfall?

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I dunno about the waterfall, I'm not a monkey. Maybe he's saying "I rule this place"

 

[Tempest19]

"Get your hands off me you damn dirty human!"

Srry, couldn't resist some sort of Planet of the Apes quote (and I know and have seen the original, just thought remake quote fit best.)

 

[Superhobo]

I dunno about the waterfall, I'm not a monkey. Maybe he's saying "I rule this place"

Ahuh.

 

[Superhobo]

"Get your hands off me you damn dirty human!"

Srry, couldn't resist some sort of Planet of the Apes quote (and I know and have seen the original, just thought remake quote fit best.)

Blasphemy!!!

 

[C.F. Kane]

So, beating your chest and yelling is equivalent to praying?

If you're a Pentecostalist, maybe, but really?

 

[Twin2]

Quickly we must convert the heathens!

 

[Superhobo]

So, beating your chest and yelling is equivalent to praying?

If you're a Pentecostalist, maybe, but really?

Maybe.

 

[turtlefocker]

Good read, I enjoyed that article.

 

[bullets]

So, beating your chest and yelling is equivalent to praying?

If you're a Pentecostalist, maybe, but really?

I think they beat their chests for a number of things, they seem limited .

 

[sithgoblin]

you don't think animals have souls?

No, and that includes Homo Sapiens.

 

[bullets]

animals have feelings and emotional connection but they cant be held accountable for their actions. animals can't sin .

 

[Superhobo]

They have their own societal rules - apes and wolves being the best examples, and they hold each other accountable, so -

 

[turtlefocker]

I'd like to read more on ape, and even wolf, "culture". Can you recommend any good articles Superhobo?

 

[Superhobo]

I'd like to read more on ape, and even wolf, "culture". Can you recommend any good articles Superhobo?

Sure - lemme just dig through my posts. There was a really good debate going on a while back, hold on -

 

[Superhobo]

Here's one - there's more, but again, I'll have to dig through my posts and send them to you - that's kind of interesting. Have a read.

 

[turtlefocker]

Here's one - there's more, but again, I'll have to dig through my posts and send them to you - that's kind of interesting. Have a read.

another interesting article, I must of missed these when originally posted. I must say the topic intrigues me.

It's late where I am, so I'm turning in. I'll probably be looking for more stuff on this during my downtime at school tomorrow.

 

[Superhobo]

Here's one more, from National Geographic, that actually explores the differentiation between chimpanzee cultures, to some extent. It's good.

 

[Superhobo]

Since this has - somewhat - proved my original assumption correct, I have to wonder if we might not find the same things in other social animals, like dolphins and penguins and such.

 

[psychocheeseman]

Since this has - somewhat - proved my original assumption correct, I have to wonder if we might not find the same things in other social animals, like dolphins and penguins and such.

there was a test on birds about superstition - they dropped food at random intervals and the birds started doing what they thought would make food fall. - sorry couldn't be bothered finding the article...

so do animals have souls?

No, and that includes Homo Sapiens.

totally agree.

 

[J-Sentius]

Just because they look a bit like humans,like all mamals( apes look a lot like us though). Doesn't mean they are Inteligent as in early human inteligent.

This is smart by the way, promoting the idea of us only being evolved monkeys makes us scared of death leading to us looking for satisfaction from material gains as we have nothing else to look forward to. Material gains means consuming more, and buying things we don't need...this leads ultimately to companies getting easy money for producing things useless to us.