Recent archaeological and neurobiological evidence suggests that as the human brain evolved, specific cognitive abilities appeared that paralleled the invention of gods and their role in human life.
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Artifacts offer insights into when these cognitive abilities and behaviors evolved. Sophisticated and multistep tool and weapon making and the production of jewelry for self-ornamentation all suggest advancing cognitive abilities. …
The final step in the invention of gods probably required one more advancement … about 40,000 years ago. … [B]urial practices demonstrate that they fully understood death as the termination of their own personal existence. In addition, they began to imagine alternatives to death and speculated on where their deceased ancestors existed.
[One] study discovered that self-reported spirituality or religiosity mapped to a brain circuit that was centered on a brain region called the periaqueductal gray. This is quite a fascinating discovery, given that the periaqueductal gray is found in the brain stem, not the cortex, as might be expected from other studies. The periaqueductal gray is an ancient structure believed to play a role in our response to fear, pain, and altruistic behavior.
