Thursday 31 March 2016

The Evolution of God (By Robert Wright) - A Synopsis & Review by Vimal Kodai

The Evolution of God

(By Robert Wright)
- A Review & Synopsis by Vimal Kodai -

After having written The Moral Animal, Robert Wright strikes back with yet another compelling and very appealing book; this one is entitled, The Evolution of God—a book which talks and relates quite entirely about the history of religion and the future of religious beliefs on our planet. The author desires and wishes to provide the events that precede and preclude the several worldviews on the credible existence of a divine being. His interest is directed towards the notion of survival of divine beliefs with the evolution of time and along with the coming of a scientific and technologically oriented world. He pinpoints the ways psychological well-being has improved in the course of time with the arrival of science and technology. Robert Wright also suggests and highlights with much sense of recognition that his book is an attempt to adapt to the survival of religious beliefs while trying to work side by side with the advances and marvels of science over the ages. He certainly does not claim to have the answers to many beliefs that exist with regards to all the religions that have been permanent on our planet since the beginning of time. His personal guidance and the attempts of his (from this present book) will assuredly lead to a concise and thorough worldview about the evolution of religions on our planet: he states that he wishes to foresee that the worldviews on religion and on religious beliefs with rapid globalization and scientific advancement will hopefully ease and lessen global unrest.


The Evolution of God initiates itself with the following basic fundamental themes; these are namely: I - The Birth and Growth of Gods, II - The Emergence of Abrahamic Monotheism, III - The Invention of Christianity, IV - The Triumph of Islam, and V - God Goes Global (Or, Doesn’t).



I - The Birth and Growth of Gods
Wright displays a very strong emphasis and a bright scope on the ways primitive societies used to have their beliefs passed on to the next generations with their religious faiths being “not the result of deep thought.” Wright even suggests and maintains that rituals and superstitions were the highlights of these primitive societies and that the latter were hunter-gatherers or agrarians. He brings up examples, such as those of the Chukchee people of Siberia, The Klamath hunter-gatherer of Oregon, The Haida Native Americans of the North Pacific Coast, The Mbuti pygmies of Africa’s Congo region, The Kung Bushman of the Kalahari Desert, and, The Semang hunter-gatherers of Southeast Asia which he compares and contrasts to the rise of a Biblical and stable belief on the fronts of an Abrahamic Lineage in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths.

Rituals in Primitive Societies

Evolution of Religious Beliefs

The writer of The Evolution of God explores religious practices in primitive societies by implying that the latter’s peoples’ beliefs rested on the following: observations on the natural quest for inner peace, the moral dimension of religious bodies, the brotherly and sisterly love, fear of the divine being’s presence, their stately rituals were very manipulative, and, the jumble of spirits and deities doing implausible acts to maintain control over their parts of the world was always prevailing with sacrifices and ritual correctness. Wright also states that the modern Darwinian theories somehow deflate religion and religious beliefs while cognitively and psychologically undermining the answers susceptible to certain kinds of adaptive formulae with respect to the existence of a divine being. However, he admits that evolutionary psychologists dictate that the two innate mechanisms which are bound to be found in primitive societies are as follows: kin selection which leads to sacrifice for close relatives, and nonkin selection which leads to reciprocal altruism or considerate/cooperative relationships. These are the two separate categories which make the hunter-gatherers differ in their decency.

Polynesian Gods

While, he talks and relates about the Gods of Polynesia and about the Age of Chiefdom, the writer (Robert Wright) explores all the traces, be it: scientific, exploratory, evolutionary, social, cognitive, cohesive, political or religious. As he targets countries and islands, such as: Tonga, Galapagos Islands, Samoa, Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, etc., he even mentions that key religious beliefs and principles guided the people of Polynesia. These were Tapu and Mana. Tapu refers to the forbidden part of things, such as: violating rules and principles that may result in being punished through social disapproval. Whereas, Mana, refers to the a secular meaning derived from the magical and the divine powers through a supernatural electricity that is mundane, effective, efficacious, and successful in attaining wishes and desires.


 The writer provides a very elaborative description of how the Polynesian religion might have been austere and tense with their moralistic and ritualistic obligations that led to performance anxiety. The Polynesian chiefdoms featured several religious sentiments that could be paralleled with our modern legal, political and economic systems in terms of the efficacy. Mr. Wright strongly documents the fact that in chiefdoms, Gods were the guardians of political power, supervisors of economic performance, and supporters of social norms that would help in the promotion of grouping people while living together despite their comprising of large numbers of hunter-gatherers groups and tribes.

Ishtar (The Goddess of Love)
Enki (The Sun God)
Enlil (The God of Creation)

As he crosses the many frontiers that bind the various Gods in the Ancient States of Mesopotamia—the Gods and Goddesses; such as: Ishtar (The Goddess of Love), Enlil (God of Creation) in Nipur, Enki (Sun God) in Eridu, Inanna (Goddess), etc., the author of The Evolution of God eventually leads his readers to understand what led to the instatement of Monotheism and to its complete foundation. He has a very brief and thorough written plot on the Epic of Creation and how the Mesopotamian and Egyptian, and Babylonian intellectuals made way to the drifts that bonded technology and scientific rationalism.

King Hammurabi

Marduk
Marduk
The Gods of Babylon

He turns towards Polytheism and Monotheism as he gets into the realms of the many lists of Gods that made their impact in those bodies of societies which were heading towards a civilized way of living. With such themes in mind, he brings up the idea of how political bodies and politicians emerged and how economic strategies came into being. Many key figures that were considered to have given rise to a formal and stable way of leading a governing body of politicians were the following: The King Hammurabi and Marduk. These two latter personalities had the empowered capacities of making laws, and thereafter, they made sure that these were followed and well-observed with strong understanding of their purposes in coming into being. Finally, the writer enters the gateway of Moral Progress, where he depicts the idea of having a single God as being really eminent. He introduces Moses and the Judeo-Christian civilization as he lets go of the ideal that was once built on the grounds of Polytheism and the acceptance of many Gods and Goddesses.


II - The Emergence of Abrahamic Monotheism, III - The Invention of Christianity

The crucial messages from the Hebrew Bible led to the emergence of an establishment of Religion and religious beliefs in Ancient Israel. The Old Testament (Or, the Hebrew Bible) was a landmark in taking history of religions to a better naturalistic and moralistic stand. Monotheism was made more credible and the eventual lineage of the Abrahamic religions adhered to the refusal of a belligerent society and that of a violence-driven age. The author of The Evolution of God shapes his next few chapters by addressing the ways by which the Bible was translated and what led to its ongoing transliteration. As such, he supports the fact that the Hebrew Bible was a beginning point in the restoration of a factual and set foundation of a rigid and credible religious foundation in the Middle East. He maintains that the ancient world relied on many superstitions and ritualistic ceremonies, whereby the Hebrew Bible relayed a bright and enlightening glow towards a better portrayal of the divine being’s presence—known as El (term often used in Hebrew which means, God—in English). The story of Elijah, the Book of Hosea, the birth of the Israelites, The story of King Josiah of Judah, The story of King Zebekiah of Judah, The Jews, The Christians and The Muslims would all rise from the theological conventions set up by beliefs based on the Abrahamic God.


Jesus of Nazareth whose purpose was served on the soils of Israel is known to have been cited as: the Messiah, the King of Israel, the destroyer “with words of mouth” of the unlawful nations, and the prevailing logic to the principles set forward in the name of God.

Jesus (The Messiah)

JESUS OF NAZARETH (Jesus Christ)

The Gospel and the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are all accounted for with “validity” and “credibility” as the basis and foundations of the life and words of Jesus. The Apostles and their impacts on Christianity, the moral terms that regards their missions and the exercise of this very religion, Christianity, are all well-framed and put in place by stating why Jesus became to be known as the saviour.

Middle East (The Land of Babylonian Gods, the land where rose Judaism, Christianity & Islam)

IV - The Triumph of Islam, and V - God Goes Global (Or, Doesn’t).
The other few chapters relate on how Islam came into being. How the prophet Muhammad became an influential figure and that he was the one who basically set forth the principles and routes devout for Muslims and other believers in the Post-Hebrew Bible and Post-Christian Bible era. The writer also gives a glimpse on the future of the evolution of religions and religious beliefs on our planet. He highlights the many other sides of other religions; such as, Buddhism under the influence of the emperor Ashoka, Hinduism with the worship of Hindu Gods, Atheism and the world of atheists, the experience of a heavenly and Godly feeling in the genes of humans, the expansion of the moral imagination over the millennial, what good does “God” do to traditional believers, Truths and Consequences, Thinking and Feeling about the views of religious origins, and, Varieties of Religious experiences that consist of a crude learning of a mechanism in the human brain leading to perceptions in various religions.

The Emperor Ashoka


Prior to his appendix, Wright provides an Afterword which concludes itself with one of the scenes known as The Ultimate reality of Science. The latter portrays how a believer perceives the modern world while recognizing that there is God at its source—that moral order and the moral dimension to life on Earth has “God” as the topmost responsible party of its evolution.

Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God is book that is very scholarly and it has the tools and assets that could dictate factual events and circumstances that pertain to the evolution of religion on our planet. The Evolution of God is also a book that explains with clarity how some major events in the history of religion were misplaced and misunderstood due to the ways these same events manifested themselves and that they came to be put in the ancient manuscripts and scriptures. The Evolution of God takes us to the depth of the evolution of religions with a certain major emphasis being brought to the nature of the divine being’s portrait to the primitive societies. It also leans upon the many facets of religious beliefs as they manifested themselves during the millennia. The Evolution of God is a book that is well-written, well-researched, well-analyzed and well-set. It brings a very profound and bright look at the scope of the evolution of God (or, Gods) while displaying magnificent ways to covey how the latter came to being known as the one who was revealed through the famous sacred scriptures known to humankind.

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