Some of the religious rituals live for a few days and do not go beyond the boundaries of a narrow circle of initiates. Others exist for centuries or even millennia, spreading among millions of people. But what if the success of certain religious rituals is not determined by people at all?
The classic explanation of the prevalence of religion and religious rituals is provided by the theory of memes. The concept and the term "meme" was proposed by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene.
By analogy with genes, these are units of cultural information that, like genes, are capable of mutating (changing), multiplying, and therefore evolving. Successful memes that are easily transmitted and well remembered survive and the rest disappear. Modern anthropologists view religion as a cultural meme that spreads through communication between people.
However, quite recently, Russian scientists Alexander Panchin, Alexander Tuzhikov and Yuri Panchin from the Institute for Information Transmission Problems (IITP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences published an article in Biology Direct magazine “Can Microbes Cause Addiction to Religious Rituals? Midichlorians: The Biomeme Hypothesis , in which they put forward an interesting hypothesis that some religious practices are biomemes, that is, manifestations of symbiosis between information memes and biological organisms (somewhat reminiscent of the concept of midichlorians from the Star Wars saga).
“Our hypothesis is, of course, quite controversial. Reviewers of the article find the idea interesting, although they believe that it is most likely wrong. But on the other hand, when Marshall and Warren put forward their hypothesis that the most common cause of stomach ulcers is Helicobacter pylori infection, and not stress or spicy food, as has long been assumed, they were simply laughed at. And then it turned out that they were right, - says one of the authors of the work, a researcher at the molecular evolution sector of the IITP RAS, Alexander Panchin.
- In the history of science, there are a number of similar examples in which the causes of certain conditions were microbes, and not something else. There is a growing body of research showing that a person's gut microflora (microbiome) can influence behavior. It has been suggested that certain microorganisms can increase anxiety, depression and even influence the development of Alzheimer's disease. So maybe microorganisms are also the reason for some religious rituals?"
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Lunch for the cat
In nature, there are many examples of parasitic organisms capable of controlling their hosts and forcing them to perform meaningless and even harmful (for the host) actions that contribute to the spread and reproduction of parasites. The larvae of the flatworm Dicrocoelium dendriticum cause infected ants to climb tall blades of grass at night and attach themselves to the top.
This makes the ants (and the parasite's larvae inside) easily accessible to cattle, the ultimate hosts of the parasite in which it reproduces. The parasitic worm Spinochordodes tellinii (also known as "horsehair") guides its host, the grasshopper Meconema thalassinum, into the water, where the adult parasite multiplies and the host usually dies.
Some fungi, viruses, crustaceans, protozoa can also change the behavior of the hosts. Take, for example, the rabies virus, which penetrates the central nervous system and causes attacks of aggression: a rabid animal bites other animals and thereby spreads the virus.
In 2013, an article was published in the journal Ecology Letters, which showed that crustaceans of the genus Artemia, infected with flatworms and microsporidia, are much more likely to gather in schools. These flocks become visible to birds (eg flamingos), the ultimate host of the parasite. In this regard, the assumption arises that parasites can contribute to the socialization of crustaceans so that they are more actively consumed.
But perhaps the most famous example of this kind is the single-celled protozoan Toxoplasma. The ultimate host of this parasite is cats, and rodents are the intermediate host. Rodents infected with Toxoplasma are more tolerant to feline odors and are more likely to stay in open areas where they become easy prey for predators, meaning Toxoplasma helps the rodent become a cat's meal.
Toxoplasma also affects human behavior, although not with such fatal consequences. About a third of the world's population is infected with Toxoplasma, such people are more likely to get into car accidents, have an altered perception of the smell of cat urine, and are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia and depression.
Ritual kisses
When studying the effect of parasites on animals, of particular interest is the behavior of infected individuals, which promotes the spread of parasites and does not help the survival or reproduction of the hosts. Scientists from the IITP RAS paid attention to some religious rituals. In most of the mainstream religions, there are rituals that potentially facilitate the transmission of infections: circumcision, communion, the "rolling" ritual in Hinduism, ritual ablutions in Islam, and a ritual pilgrimage to Mecca.
“Holy springs” and “holy water” are often saturated with microorganisms, including pathogenic ones. In addition, sacred relics that many people kiss during religious ceremonies become a means of transmitting and spreading microorganisms. Christians kiss crosses, icons and Bible covers, Muslims kiss the Black Stone of the Kaaba, and Jews kiss the Western Wall.
Thus, some religious rituals can promote the spread of germs and have no apparent benefit to the believers who perform them. That is, these rituals are good for microbes, not people.
“In 2012, an article was published in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences that showed the connection between religiosity and parasitic stress in human populations: the more parasites, the higher the religiosity on average,” says Alexander Panchin. “We offer a biological explanation for this social phenomenon, which may shed light on the origins and causes of some strange religious practices. Although, of course, our hypothesis does not try to explain the existence of religion, but only the existence of some religious rituals that contribute to the spread of infections."
According to the authors of the work, testing this hypothesis is not too different from testing any other about the role of this or that microorganism in the appearance of any disease or symptom. The only difference is that you must first detect this potential microorganism. You can search for it using new generation DNA reading methods, by comparing the diversity of microorganisms in people who voluntarily perform and do not perform specific religious rituals. Such studies, called methods of comparative metagenomics, are now being used more and more.
Where do bacteria live on a person?
As people inhabit the Earth, so the person is inhabited by microorganisms, which are about ten times more than his own cells - 1014-1015. The main part lives in the digestive tract and nasopharynx (about 75%), in the genitourinary system (2-3% in men and up to 9-12% in women) and on the skin.
Dan Graur, Professor of Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution, Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston:
“Previous explanations for some religious rituals used memes or genetic traits that were supported by natural selection (my favorite explanation is in the 1973 article“The Evolutionary Benefits of Being Stupid”in Perspectives in biology and medicine). The hypothesis put forward by the authors is new in that it offers a biological explanation for a social phenomenon and is based on already existing facts and analogies based on scientific documentation."
Evgeny Kunin, Lead Research Fellow, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, US National Institutes of Health:
“The authors of the article presented a striking hypothesis that interactions between humans and the microbiome contribute significantly to religious behavior. This idea is interesting, and much of the article is fascinating.
Nevertheless, there were significant weaknesses in the original version of the article, so, in my opinion, this idea is unfounded speculation, and not a legitimate scientific hypothesis. It looks better when tweaked, but I still believe that the specific link between the human microbiome and religious behavior is negligible at best.
Nevertheless, the authors are right that the origin and survival of these kinds of customs requires an explanation, which, perhaps, should go beyond memes."
Dmitry Mamontov, Popular Mechanics magazine