EnlightenNext MP3: Robert Wright
The Evolution of God
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Award-winning author and journalist Robert Wright promises that his new book, The Evolution of God, “will antagonize just about everyone—Jews, Christians, Muslims, new agers, and atheists alike.” In it, this recognized authority on human moral development and evolutionary psychology presents the controversial notion that God has evolved alongside culture since prehistoric times.
In a series on his new book, EnlightenNext senior editor Elizabeth Debold interviewed Wright (also the author of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny and The Moral Animal). The first part of the interview is an exploration of how our understanding of God has changed in response to technological, political, and social development, from early hunter-gatherer clans and chiefdoms to modern monotheistic religions. Defining religion as a stabilizing force throughout history, Wright argues that the spiritual traditions have always pulled humanity to a higher moral truth and kept society from falling into chaos.
In the second part, Wright continues his exploration into humanity’s changing views of God, from ancient Egyptian myths to present day religions. Driven by his interest in redefining and “re-enchanting” our ideas about the divine for modern times, he takes into account all that we know about evolution, biology, and human history. Arguing that, even though we can no longer rely on old belief systems to understand divinity, within the desire to know God is an indispensible spark of truth that is in line with “the moral code of the universe.”
Filed Under: Cultural Evolution • Culture • EnlightenNext Editors’ Blog • EnlightenNext magazine • Religion • Spirituality • Voices from the Edge
if I evolve i am not God