57. Will Gervais on the Origins of Religion, Disbelief, and Morality

“Humans didn’t evolve to believe in gods — we evolved to learn from culture, and sometimes culture points away from gods.” Dr Will M. Gervais, psychologist and author of Disbelief, joins Humanism Now to examine one of the most persistent puzzles in the study of religion: why a species capable of deep religiosity also produces millions of convinced non-believers. Drawing on cultural evolution, cognitive science, and cross-cultural data, Will shows why belief and disbelief are shaped less by raw rationality than by social signals, security, and learning environments. Contact & resources; Website – http://willgervais.com/ University profile – https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/will-gervais ResearchGate – https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Will-M-Gervais-16312567 Disbelief – Gervais (2023) – https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Disbelief-by-Will-M-Gervais/9781633889248 Topics we cover • Why humans evolved a capacity for religion, not a destiny to believe • The twin puzzles of belief and disbelief explained scientifically • Why comfort-based and “God-spot” theories fall short • Cultural signals, credible displays, and how communities transmit belief • Why atheism often emerges where signals are mixed or muted • Weak and fragile links between analytic thinking and non-belief • Moral distrust of atheists — and what behavioural data actually show • Differences in moral style rather than moral behaviour • Agnosticism as a distinct epistemic position, not a midpoint • Existential security and why stable societies secularise • Cultural evolution and the “big gods” hypothesis • Why scientific self-correction matters more than tribal loyalty Send us Fan Mail Support the show Support Humanism Now & Join Our Community! Follow @HumanismNowPod | YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Facebook | Threads | X.com | BlueSky Humanism Now is produced by Humanise Live a podcast production agency based in London, serving charities, companies, and individuals across the globe. Contact us to get starting in podcasting today at humanise.live or hello@humanise.liveMusic: Blossom by Light Prism Podcast transcripts are AI-generated and may contain errors or omissions. They are provided to make our content more accessible, but should not be considered a fully accurate record of the conversation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices