Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion

Barbara King makes a valiant effort to bring religion within the framework of human evolution. She's not the first to attempt this, but her primate research has placed her in an enviable position to achieve more than previous efforts. Her thesis rests on our similarity with most other primate species. We are a social creature, with outlook and behaviour depending on our relationships with our immediate fellows. Apes, she notes, express deep empathy, they mourn lost family members, just as we do. Apes interact in subtle ways, from eye contact, expressions and postures. "Body language" in many cases substitutes for the verbal skills we enjoy. Assessing these traits in a scientific manner permits us, she argues, to also assess that most bizarre of human behaviours - the religious one. Religion, King asserts, is deeply rooted in what she terms "meaning-making". In a social species with good community identity, this creates "belongingness", a rather cumbersome term spanning self and group awareness, empathy, and a sense of common goals and values. Even the other apes, she argues, display similar characteristics. Gorillas, chimpanzees and, to a very limited extent even monkeys develop a sense of this belongingness. "Meaning-making" derives from "belongingness" by adding human forms of expression to what we inherited from our ape ancestors. Rightly inferring that modern ape behaviours have deep roots, perhaps as far back as our last common ancestor, King examines the paths humans took in their migrations and the behaviours they might have carried with them. The best part of the book follows with fine depictions of the origins and wanderings of our ancestors over the globe. Examples of early hominin fossils are located and explained well, although few of the palaeontologists are mentioned. Starting with the emergence of primates 70 million years ago, she explains their distinctions from other mammals: grasping hand, binocular vision, large brains and a long duration given to upbringing. Each is further elucidated by their social implications. Grasping hands, for example, allowed infants to tightly bond with the mother who carried them about while foraging. All these features became "greater than the sum of their parts" as these creatures moved over the land. Most important, King insists on recognising that development was continuous - there is no "missing link" when a particular species, bearing unique traits replaced any other. Many varieties lived concurrently, but all likely exhibited aspects of those behaviour patterns we see in the apes. Not until symbolism, seen in various hominin species, including the Neanderthal, emerged in the form of burial artefacts, does a truly new feature appear. Related to those grave goods must be the notion of an "afterlife", she contends. The issue of "evolving god", implied by the title, actually receives short shrift in King's account. Part of the reason for the lack, of course, is the pauc

On reading Evolving God I was filled with a great sense of enthusiasm and hope. Here is an author and a scientist who created a work that ordinary people can get their head around and understand. It offers a workable solution for those who want to have an intelligent faith stance but don't see it in the Fundamentalism that grips American life. The work brings together a way of considering the commonality that all religion shares and offers a clear basis for uniting instead of dividing communions. Here we have a clear and compelling call for the consideration of the real purpose and meaning of religion in the present time. This is a powerful statement of hope in a time filled with doom sayers and purveyors of dispair. By sharing her insights though her observations of animals over an extensive period of study Barbara King shows us how behavior makes all the difference. Religion is not about memorizing religious truth or doctrine but rather is about specific deeds of compassion, acts which demonstrate our belongingness and developing an ethic of respect for all life. This is a readable and thoughtful book that should be required reading for all those who want to become religious leaders. It needs to have wide spread exposure to Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Buddist and other major religious movements and their seminaries, institutes, Ashrams, Intellectual Centers of learning. This book will be very helpful over the course of the years ahead to discussions between religious leaders. It is one you won't want to pass up.

Barbara King's work is an interesting departure point for trying to understand why religion is so important a part of human life. Her writing is engaging and she is a good teacher. "Belongingness" is undoubtedly an inadequate label for whatever mechanisms work within hominids to ultimately produce religious phenomena, but it is probably unavoidable given that she is trying to tackle a subject which has not always gotten a sober analysis. In my reading, her presumptive starting point for this book is that religion is an amazing aspect of human life and we must try to understand how it operates in individuals and societies. The remark "Religion is an evolutionary catastrophe and faith is a drag on the progress of humanity" is an interesting view for someone who fancies themselves scientifically-minded. It makes me think of the ignored Plank that exists in one's own eye while admiring the speck in another's.

I was skeptical about this book and I almost canceled my order. But after having read it, I will be forever grateful that I didn't. From now on Barbara King's questions and musings about the origins and purposes of religion will always be present when I am considering the matter. This book is so insightful about a subject so often mistreated by people of insufficient scholarship. "Evolving God" is a delightful book. My highest recommendation.

The front cover of Barbara King's "Evolving God" proclaims that this is a "provocative view on the origins of religion." Perhaps, but this is not a deliberately provocative book. "Evolving God" is a gentle, respectful, and above all thoughtful book that searches for the origins of the religious impulse. King finds this in what she calls belongingness, "mattering to someone who matters to you," a trait found in contemporary humans but also in our human and non-human primate ancestors. King's is a scientific and evolutionary account of the origins of religion, but one that is more nuanced and ultimately more satisfying than either the current trend of 'gene-based' accounts, or of those like Dawkins, who insists that science must necessarily lead us to regard religion with scorn -- a highly unscientific view, if we are ever to understand the undeniable fact that humans are deeply spiritual creatures. Rather than pitting science against religion, King deftly uses the knowledge that science uncovers to reveal the evolution of the religious imagination. "Evolving God" should be read by all who seek to understand how and why humans came to have such an abiding interest in the spiritual, whether it is expressed through participation in organized religion or a profound sense of awe in the mystery of life. Highly recommended!