By Julie FrenchThe Daily Northwestern

Regardless of whether religion reveals the truth, it provides valuable functions in society, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jared Diamond told nearly 600 people Monday night at Ryan Family Auditorium.

Diamond, a professor of geography at the University of California-Los Angeles, has gained recognition for his analysis of human civilization in books such as “Guns, Germs and Steel,” for which he won the Pulitzer. His lecture was sponsored by the Prescott Medical Communications Group and organized by the department of neurobiology and physiology of the Feinberg School of Medicine.

He began with an Indonesian village story similar to the Judeo-Christian story of the Tower of Babel, which offers an explanation of the creation of different languages.

Diamond said these stories serve the first function of religion – providing explanations.

The remaining three functions he proposed are bolstering political obedience, teaching moral precepts and justifying war. Although he emphasized these were not the only roles of religion, the success of a religion in manipulating these functions can determine its survival, he said. He added that it is easier for people to analyze the functions of a religion if they do not adhere to it.

Diamond added that because religion is time-, money- and energy-consuming, its followers must reap some perks.

“If religion didn’t provide benefits, you would think some society would have arisen that would have jettisoned this waste of resources,” he said.

Many of Diamond’s examples centered around Papua New Guinea, whose tribes serve as a counter-example to societies with modern religions. Because they are small, the tribes can depend on social pressures to keep the group cohesive. When members of a New Guinean tribe encounter a stranger, their instinct is to run away or to kill them. In larger modern societies, religions must teach morals to prevent such instinctual behavior.

“In a state society, you can’t go kill every strange person you’ve never seen before,” Diamond said, “because others would join in the brawl and the society would collapse.”

Once moral codes were developed, societies faced the problem of justifying war, especially in the West, he said.

“A state has rules that you should not kill, you should not steal, but then tells you to go to war … at minimum, that’s confusing,” he said.

Religions most often justified killing non-believers. More recently, in an instance of evolution, states now use ethnicity over religion as a basis for killing, he said.

Some audience members felt that Diamond stayed away from actual beliefs to avoid controversy.

“I thought it was very tame,” said Communication senior Susannah Cunningham. “I don’t think he approached any topics that would have gotten him in trouble.”

The crowd was trying to create more in-depth discussion, she said, but “he dodged questions.”

Brittany Futterman, an Edgewater resident, thought the topic might have been better addressed in a panel.

“Although he seems very well-versed in terms of his cultural understanding of the world, he still presented a very narrow perspective,” she said. “I think it’s important to recognize that he’s only one person.”

Reach Julie French at [email protected].