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Robert Wright: The evolution of God (2009, Little, Brown) 4 stars

Review of 'The evolution of God' on 'LibraryThing'

4 stars

Other than Wright's (over? -) selling his notion of non-zero-sum-ness as the discovery of the morally aware religion/culture, this book is as gentle a nudge as it can be in today's troubled waters. Not only do today's "people of the book" have much to learn from one another's religions, but each as much from within their own. He lists fundamental challenges to each of the common trio: Judaism will have to accept the Exodus story is not historical, and that Yahweh evolved from tribal gods of the region. Christians will have to accept Jesus' message of love wasn't particularly novel, nor as universal as we've come to believe. Islam will need to learn (not unlike the other two) that words ascribed to the Prophet were later additions. Each will have to give up an exclusivity standing in the way of the next level of moral inclusion.returnreturnWright threads the history with human nature and the evolutionary forces which put us on the path to recognize religious spirituality. He recognizes the "God gene" as an explanation, but as likely to face erosion as earlier naturalist dieties.