Soccer, religion, play, Sydney Harris and evolution

Many of you of a "certain age" (Primary Spotter, for example) may remember an old Chicago newspaper columnist by the name of Sydney Harris. He was erudite, a friend of novelist Saul Bellow, something of a counterpart to the hardball political hilarity of the brilliant Mike Royko. Both columnists' work appeared in the Detroit papers in the 70s and early 80s and I loved them both. Indeed, along with $1.00 Marvel Comics (Avengers debuts May 4), and the Boston Congregationalist minister, "Dr." Roy Hutcheon, my mother made us go hear (the church was in Grosse Pointe, where she aspired to live), I found what academics call the "life of the mind."

If you were to look in local Detroit papers today you would find some combination of -- Mitch "I see dead people but don't go to basketball games I write about " Albom; Susan "the fudge is really good up north" Agar; and Rochelle "people shouldn't shoot children" Riley. I would rather listen to Katy Perry sing Fireworks. Apologies in advance; I don't mean to offend anyone's taste -- just listing my own (de gustubus -- "to each his own").

At any rate, Sydney Harris had a column called "Things discovered en route to looking up other things" where he listed in pre-bullet point form disparate but always interesting facts, ideas, etc. he had come across.

This post is something thought en route to looking up other things.

On Monday, some 650 MILLION people took a Monday afternoon to watch Manchester City beat Manchester United 1-0. That is a world event (I stood in the rain, instead, and watched a jr. high track meet).

And that is why many talk about soccer  as a "religion." Soccer, a game -- play -- captivates what seems to be an inordinate amount of attention. We can't explain it. It seems, and is, irrational. Why can't something real, something that matters, something critical for our very survival -- say global climate change :) -- captivate our attention in the same way? In this, then, soccer is like a religion. Current vociferous critics of religion -- Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins and so on -- make this point all the time. Why does religion -- something (for them) not real, something not critical for survival -- still captivate so much attention? In our house we have this discussion frequently: should "play" be taking this much attention and time?? ("why are you blogging about soccer and not finishing your book?")

Sociologist Robert Bellah suggests the connection between soccer or play and religion might be much more substantial than we think. In *Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age* (Harvard UP, 2011), Bellah points out that "play" in birds, mammals, and humans evolved because those species spend more time caring for their young as they mature. Those in the area with 30 somethings living at home will understand this evolutionary process immediately! Because these young are free from "selection pressures" -- the need to find food, water, shelter to survive and so on -- they develop activities (play) to stave off boredom. Not surprisingly, the play behaviors that develop mimic the instinctual survival behaviors that atrophy. Human, mammals, birds play wrestle, chase, hunt, and so because these are the things they would have been doing -- for real -- if Mom, Dad, Nana, Grandad and so on weren't busy doing those necessary things for them.

Simple enough, right?

Here is where Bellah makes things interesting. If we tend to think of play (read: soccer) in evolutionary terms we would tend to say play evolves because it prepares the young for real world work. Sports teaches us teamwork, character, discipline...blah, blah, blah. You know the Lombardi  mantra.

But Bellah makes clear the development of play (soccer) is an evolutionary accident, a byproduct of the way humans, mammals and birds raise and protect offspring. Moreover, and more strikingly (no soccer pun intended), functions develop out of or from play -- "novel activities" -- that had never existed before. Remember: we are talking about hominids who began evolving 1.8 million years ago. Out of play, Bellah argues, out of this hominid engagement with what is purposeless, not real, not essential and so on developed a capacity for humans (late hominids) to embrace with great seriousness that which is purposeless, not real, not essential.

This would include the capacity for religious belief itself.

In other words, human religious activity evolved in part because of the evolution of play. So when folks say soccer is like religion, we should be aware that we might soon be saying, instead, religion is not only like soccer -- it evolves from soccer.

Looking forward to the Jags, of course, this weekend. Let's get Kate some PK practice.