Scan barcode
tomuytt's review
3.0
I read the Dutch translation of this book. That edition's title has a better fit with the content than the English one. Translated back to English it says: "The Spiritual Monkey: Why We Believe in God". And that is more or less the basic thesis of the book: we are spiritual creatures by nature.
King develops this through seven chapters, with an added eight chapter on the relation between religion and science. The first chapter is introductory, offering the main thesis of the book. We are spiritual creatures, King argues, because evolution has enabled us to empathize with other living creatures. We have a natural desire to feel connected with others, we are social beings and because of the emotional charge this desire for social belonging we developed a sense for connection with supernatural agents. Chapters 3, 4 en 4 offer data, mostly from archeology, to support this thesis. Unfortunately this does not always come across as strong as King seems to think. For instance: she does not address thoroughly the evolution of emotions, although she mentions neurological research on a few occasions. But what troubled me the most that she readily jumped from establishing a case for imagination and the use of symbols as an important development in human culture - which sounds reasonable enough - to taking the evidence for that case as proving the role of emotions in the development of religion - which to me seems a bit like stretching the evidence. Actually, King seems to take her thesis more as a given and less as what has to be examined.
That does not mean I am in total disagreement with her thesis. I read this book with "The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition" by Michael Tomasello in the back of my mind. Although I would not go as far as to say that both books defend the same thesis, much of what King offered seemed acceptable to me because of Tomasello's work.
One last remark on why I gave three stars, and not four: the language. Popularizing science means balancing between over- and underestimating your audience. Maybe it's due to the translation, but I sometimes had the impression that King did the latter.
King develops this through seven chapters, with an added eight chapter on the relation between religion and science. The first chapter is introductory, offering the main thesis of the book. We are spiritual creatures, King argues, because evolution has enabled us to empathize with other living creatures. We have a natural desire to feel connected with others, we are social beings and because of the emotional charge this desire for social belonging we developed a sense for connection with supernatural agents. Chapters 3, 4 en 4 offer data, mostly from archeology, to support this thesis. Unfortunately this does not always come across as strong as King seems to think. For instance: she does not address thoroughly the evolution of emotions, although she mentions neurological research on a few occasions. But what troubled me the most that she readily jumped from establishing a case for imagination and the use of symbols as an important development in human culture - which sounds reasonable enough - to taking the evidence for that case as proving the role of emotions in the development of religion - which to me seems a bit like stretching the evidence. Actually, King seems to take her thesis more as a given and less as what has to be examined.
That does not mean I am in total disagreement with her thesis. I read this book with "The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition" by Michael Tomasello in the back of my mind. Although I would not go as far as to say that both books defend the same thesis, much of what King offered seemed acceptable to me because of Tomasello's work.
One last remark on why I gave three stars, and not four: the language. Popularizing science means balancing between over- and underestimating your audience. Maybe it's due to the translation, but I sometimes had the impression that King did the latter.
book_hoarding_dragon's review
4.0
While reading Evolving God, I had described the book to some of my friends as King's view on how Religion was formed, not why. Although, she does address a popular opinion on 'why' in the last chapter of the book.
If you've ever listened to her lectures from the Teaching Company, then you'll feel right at home with this book. Barbara J. King is a Biological Anthropologist which really shines through with this book. I would say any person interested in Anthropology would enjoy those sections of the book.
The premise of Evolving God is that religion was formed through humans yearning for belongingness, which creates an emotion base behind religion. King discusses emotions within animals and even belongingness. She travels past Homo Sapiens and delves into the possibility of hominids like Neanderthal feeling emotion or even belongingness.
I think people who believe solely in Intelligent Design or Creationism might not be comfortable with the book especially if they are against the theory that hominids are Homo Sapiens evolutionary ancestors.
One thing in the book, made me realize how dated the material is. King addresses (at the time, keep in mind her book was published in '07) the possibility of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens interbreeding. Although, she doesn't state her opinion. She references a source that states that Neanderthal DNA and Human DNA are so different that it is unlikely for them to have interbred.
Now, what makes this dated? In 2010, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published an article about their Neanderthal Genome Project and that non-African Humans contain Neanderthal DNA.
I thought it would be interesting if she updated that section to see what her opinion on the matter. Also, her thoughts on the interactions of early Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. Since they had to interact in some way for this to have occurred. Unless one species were the precursor of the Vikings.
If you've ever listened to her lectures from the Teaching Company, then you'll feel right at home with this book. Barbara J. King is a Biological Anthropologist which really shines through with this book. I would say any person interested in Anthropology would enjoy those sections of the book.
The premise of Evolving God is that religion was formed through humans yearning for belongingness, which creates an emotion base behind religion. King discusses emotions within animals and even belongingness. She travels past Homo Sapiens and delves into the possibility of hominids like Neanderthal feeling emotion or even belongingness.
I think people who believe solely in Intelligent Design or Creationism might not be comfortable with the book especially if they are against the theory that hominids are Homo Sapiens evolutionary ancestors.
One thing in the book, made me realize how dated the material is. King addresses (at the time, keep in mind her book was published in '07) the possibility of Neanderthal and Homo Sapiens interbreeding. Although, she doesn't state her opinion. She references a source that states that Neanderthal DNA and Human DNA are so different that it is unlikely for them to have interbred.
Now, what makes this dated? In 2010, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology published an article about their Neanderthal Genome Project and that non-African Humans contain Neanderthal DNA.
I thought it would be interesting if she updated that section to see what her opinion on the matter. Also, her thoughts on the interactions of early Homo Sapiens and Neanderthal. Since they had to interact in some way for this to have occurred. Unless one species were the precursor of the Vikings.
More...