Religion through an evolutionary lens: An ascetic practice model in dialogue with adaptation and byproduct theories
Xinyue Tian, Benqian Sang
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications April 6, 2026 DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-07196-x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | prayer scripture chanting asceticism meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Asceticism Pleasure Adaptability Faith Adaptation eye Happiness Epistemology Environmental ethics Resource disambiguation |
| Key points | Argues that religious practices activate pleasure-related neural circuits, and that ascetic practices do not inherently conflict with pleasure-seeking, proposing the Ascetic Practice Model as an evolutionary framework. |
Abstract
Religious practices have long been studied for their psychological effects, yet their relationship to human pleasure systems remains underexplored. This study investigates how practices such as prayer, scripture chanting, asceticism, and meditation interact with neural pleasure circuits. Through neurobiological analysis and psychological evidence, we examine responses documented during various religious activities. Results from the literature indicate that these practices effectively activate pleasure-related circuits, revealing that ascetic religious practices do not inherently conflict with humanity’s tendency to seek pleasure. Our analysis indicates that religion’s evolutionary adaptability manifests in its ability to sustain well-being despite low resource consumption. We conclude that religious practices can be reinterpreted as a strategy of “finding joy in hardship,” and propose that faith may emerge as a consequence of religious practice rather than its cause, positioning deities as peripheral institutional tools rather than religion’s core. Rather than offering a definitive synthesis of existing theories, this paper positions the Ascetic Practice Model as an evolutionary-friendly framework that invites dialogue with adaptationist and byproduct accounts.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cites 16
- Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation Perspectives on Psychological Science October 10, 2017
- Psychedelics, Meditation, and Self-Consciousness Frontiers in Psychology September 4, 2018
- The Varieties of Religious Experience July 26, 2012
- The psychological and neurophysiological concomitants of mindfulness forms of meditation Acta Neuropsychiatrica April 1, 2007
- Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2014
and 11 more in the library