I like this hypothesis because it captures the collective nature of most sacred traditions. And it provides a very direct rationale for why we would have developed mental machinery to develop (and enforce) common group beliefs. In an environment of small warring clans (like chimpanzees have, and probably early humans), maintaining group cohesion is critical to survival. Those same group instincts toward followership became the foundation for religion, military service, corporate structures, and so on.

Yes, maternal love is even more ancient, and plausibly romantic love was created out of maternal love. But it doesn't seem to have as many similarities to the sacred as romantic love.

I'd say maternal love preceeds even romance as a proto-sacred phenomenon. My mind goes (naturally) to the biochemical origins of romance, but obviously there's more than just neurotransmitters at play. The interesting thing about maternal love is how fused it is with the mundane. It's also unidealized and integrated rather than set apart, yet it is indeed considered sacred. This makes me think that it's earlier than romantic love. If sacredness is emergent, I imagine it would emerge from everyd…