krep___ 's review for:

The Evolution of God by Robert Wright

3.75

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Excellent anthropological study of religion from its prehistoric origins through the Abrahamic trio set in their historical contexts. Some stuff I knew; a lot I didn't. Clear and carefully worded, Wright offers an interesting alternative to the anthropomorphic, personal, interventionist, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God (clearly a bunch of hooey in a modern world where we should know better), namely a conceptual force for moral direction that has been behind the gradual improvement in human society since the dawn of civilization (the trend described in great and persuading detail in Steven Pinker's Better Angels). The proposal is that "God" in this sense of a moral direction is, if anything, an emergent property of the collective interactions among a huge number of genetically-wired, hunter-gatherer human brains. Although the analysis of Judaism/Christianity/Islam sufficed for making his points, I wouldn't have minded gaining some insight into the Eastern religions, while he was at it - something I know a lot less about. But I get why he limited the scope; the result was a book of manageable size.