The Evolution of God KINDLE MOBI by Robert Wright

"Even before there were homo sapiens, feelings like compassion and love and sympathy had earned their way into the gene pool" -- Robert Wright, Phd
Book review by H.A.:
In THE EVOLUTION OF GOD (2009 -- shortlisted for Pulitzer Prize 2010) Robert Wright explores patterns in modern monotheistic scripture to discover the "echo" of earlier beliefs. With beautifully expressive, careful and thoughtful writing, Wright leads us back to and forward from the religious beliefs of disorganized shamanism and the "spirits" of wind, rain, cold, the seasons, stars, sun, moon, planets and flora and fauna to current systems of faith. His historical analysis argues that modern monotheistic religions evolved/developed from archaic belief to "gods" and finally to "God", and that the belief in a united "One" expressed in Islam, Judaism and Christianity concurrently evolved into Eastern Buddhist and Hindu ideas that "lower case gods" are simply manifestations of a "One" true divine force that unites the universe.
Wright's theory of the religious evolution of "One-ness" is an integral part of our evolution as Homo Sapiens; it is a concurrent evolution of Homo Sapiens to believe in a higher power -- a power we call "GOD". Employing the research of archeology, theology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright illustrates how and why so many religions come to express both a unified and a unitary belief. He argues that even in our time of monolithic global multinationals, technology and the pursuit of development and Capitalism, religion need not be either irrelevant or in conflict to SCIENCE, but rather the belief in One God is reinforced by the very science so many "traditionalists" attack as a primary cause of what they see as the dis-evolution of faith. (Quantum physics, for example affirms the "One-ness" articulated in religion, as does the study of evolutionary genetics.) The Evolution of God, whether you are an atheist, an agnostic, or hold dear any religious belief, will alter your understanding of where and why God "Is" and where S/He and WE are evolving, which -- as Wright so fluently and so wondrously explains -- is what God intended for our ever evolving species and for our evolving humanity. (H.A.)