Review by Frank Plowright
Pascal Boyer’s Explaining Religion is an exploration of religious belief framed in terms of cognitive development applying late 20th century neuroscientific understanding. As such, it’s a heavyweight proposition, and depending on your viewpoint either an extremely ambitious undertaking for delivering as a graphic novel, or perhaps the form is ideally suited for transmitting the complexities. Boyer was initially sceptical, but with the adaptation And Mankind Created the Gods Joseph Béhé proves it’s actually both.
Beginning with an assortment of spiritual beliefs among different civilisations across the ages, Boyer connects the work of researchers working in very separated fields, none of them theologists, in a study of what prompts religious belief. As this presents a selection of abstract concepts, Béhé’s interpretations need to communicate and need to attract. They do.
Béhé reconfigures Boyer’s work by falling back on the ancient literary device of discussion, the way the thoughts of major Greek philosophers have been handed down the centuries. Boyer’s thoughts are personalised by meeting people at a party, telling them he’s an anthropologist studying the origins of religion and documenting the resulting conversation with a group of people each of whom represents a personality type. It’s a way of introducing several laymen’s theories about religion with which Boyer takes issue. It’s not long before he reaches the first of many thought-provoking propositions. It’s taken for granted, for instance, that our brain sends signals that move muscles, but no-one knows exactly how mind affects matter.
For any inquisitive mind there’s so much to And Mankind Created the Gods. There’s barely a page featuring something you don’t know or a statement that doesn’t bear further contemplation. This isn’t just about religion, as an anthropologist Boyer pulls in all sorts of associated topics. Discussing social groupings alone asks why we join groups and why we identify with a group even if arbitrarily assigned. It rapidly moves into a discussion of racism with some surprising conclusions, but that’s just one of many eye-opening cross-cultural examples bolstering a statement.
This isn’t a graphic novel to skim, as points build upon each other, and nor is reading in the single sitting advisable. Yet, if you’ve any interest at all in human beliefs and thought processes, and are willing to spend the time to consider what’s on offer, And Mankind Created the Gods is going to be the source of hours of contemplation. To be clear, it’s a not a debunking of religion of any type, just an exploration of how religions manifest. It’s accessible and cogently presented and answers questions such as why some people believe in religion while others don’t. Monumental!
