By: Book review – Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion | The Inquisitive Biologist

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 10:15:12 +0000

[…] mentioned previously in my review of Barbara King’s Evolving God, religion is a pervasive phenomenon, and many scholars have put forward explanations how, when, and […]

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By: Book review – The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional | The Inquisitive Biologist

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 14:04:52 +0000

[…] The chapter about religion is another good example of a very carefully written chapter. Fuentes opposes religious fundamentalism, or the dominion some religions wish to exert over altruism and morality – you can be both these things without being religious, and for the longest time we weren’t. But similarly, he is careful to make the difference that being upset with the actions of certain religious people is not the same as being against religiousness. He also would like to see our scientific models and hypotheses to better account for the importance of the religious experience to the individual. The most interesting point Fuentes makes here, I thought, is that wishing and hope are precursors to religiousness. Both are clear forms of creativity requiring the use of imagination to envision an outcome or a future that sometimes is unlikely, but that have time and again made humans go against the odds (e.g. when facing famine or battle) and sometimes succeed. I find this a more satisfying and logical explanation than what I read in Evolving God. […]

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Comments on: Book review – Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion

By: Book review – Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion | The Inquisitive Biologist

By: Book review – The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Exceptional | The Inquisitive Biologist