The Faith Instinct, Nicholas Wade
The Faith Instinct, Nicholas Wade
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The Faith Instinct
How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures

Author: Nicholas Wade

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Unabridged: 12 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/26/2009

Categories: Nonfiction, Religion, History


Synopsis

For at least the last fifty thousand years, and probably much longer, people have practiced religion. Yet little attention has been given, either by believers or atheists, to the question of whether this universal human behavior might have an evolutionary basis. Did religion evolve, in other words, because it helped people in early societies survive?

In this original and controversial book, Nicholas Wade, a longtime reporter for the New York Times's Science section, gathers new evidence showing why religion became so essential in the course of human evolution and how an instinct for faith has been hardwired into human nature. This startling thesis is sure to catch the attention of both believers and nonbelievers. People of faith may not warm to the view that the mind's receptivity to religion has been shaped by evolution. Atheists may not embrace the idea that religious expression evolved because it conferred essential benefits on ancient societies and their successors. As The Faith Instinct argues, however, both groups must address the fact, little understood before now, that religious behavior is an evolved part of human nature.

How did we evolve to believe? Wade shows that the instinct for religious behavior is wired into our neural circuits much like our ability to learn a language. Religion provided the earliest human societies with the equivalents of law and government, giving these societies an edge in the struggle for survival. As a force that binds people together and coordinates social behavior, religion supported another significant set of social behaviors: aggression and warfare. Religious behavior, both good and ill will remain an indelible component of human nature so long as human societies need the security and cohesion that belief provides.

Social scientists once predicted that religion would progressively fade away as societies advanced in wealth and education. They were wrong. The first objective and nonpolemical book of its kind, The Faith Instinct reveals that to understand the persistence of faith, one must first acknowledge that religious behavior is embedded in human nature.

About Nicholas Wade

Nicholas Wade is a longtime reporter for The New York Times's Science section, which studies by the Times have shown is the most popular section of the paper around the country. Before writing for the Times, Wade was the deputy editor of Nature magazine in London, one of the world's most prestigious science publications, and a reporter for Science magazine, the world's premier science journal. He is the author or coauthor of six books, including A Natural History of Vision.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Morgan on August 08, 2019

Wile I personally do not 100% resonate with all of the conclusions Wade makes in this book (I am currently pretty far out on the Dawkinsiean atheist tip and am subsequently more skeptical and hostile towards religion than Wade). I did thoroughly enjoy this book and I also learned a lot. If anything,......more

Goodreads review by Emily on June 18, 2011

At the wedding I attended last weekend, I was a bit disappointed there was only one hymn because, despite being nonreligious and a terrible singer, I love hymns. Why, though? What itch is scratched by hymn-singing that isn't scratched by karaoke or listening to an Orlando di Lassus CD? In this book,......more

Goodreads review by Julie on December 02, 2009

The first half of this book was interesting. The author reviews the evidence for the evolution of morality and religion. He gives an interesting and believable argument in favor of group selection in evolution under special circumstances. Group selection is very controversial in biology. He makes a......more

Goodreads review by Terence on January 27, 2012

In The Faith Instinct, Nicholas Wade argues that religion is a gene-based adaptation that allowed those groups that had it to survive where those without perished, “religion” being defined as “a system of emotionally binding beliefs and practices in which a society implicitly negotiates through pray......more

Goodreads review by Andrea on March 02, 2016

This book had untold potential to tell the story of the evolution of religion, biologically and culturally, within human societies. Wade squandered it through chapters full of navel-gazing anecdata tortured into pretending to support his theses. The first half of the book was slow and repetitive but......more