1st Edition

The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution

268 Pages
by Routledge

268 Pages
by Routledge

268 Pages
by Routledge

Religious capacity is a highly elaborate, neurocognitive human trait that has a solid evolutionary foundation. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to describe millions of years of biological innovations that eventually give rise to the modern trait and its varied expression in humanity’s many religions. The authors present a scientific model and a central thesis that the brain organs,... Read more

Preface

Part I. Introduction to Theory

1 New Sciences, New Findings, and a New Model

2 Shifting Evolutionary Paradigms and the Study of Advanced Neurocognitive Traits

Part II. The Model

3 The Human Hearth, the Circle of Light, and the Evolution of Morality

4 Model for the Evolution of a Trait for Religious Capacity

Part III. The Implications

5 The Neuroplastic Species

6 Staying Alive, Becoming Religious

7 Future Artificial Species: Will They Be Moral? Will They Be Religious?

Index

Biography

Margaret Boone Rappaport, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist and biologist who works in human cognitive evolution, and as a futurist, lecturer, and author in Tucson, Arizona. As President, Policy Research Methods, Incorporated, she conducted research for federal agencies for 30 years. She lectured at Georgetown and George Washington Universities. Dr. Rappaport is also a prize-winning short story and poetry writer, and the Co-Founder of The Human Sentience Project, LLC.



 



Christopher J. Corbally, S.J., Ph.D., is a Jesuit priest and an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group, for which he has served as Vice Director, and liaison to its headquarters at Castel Gandolfo, Italy. He is an Adjunct Associate Astronomer at the Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona, and ministers to a wide variety of Catholics, including Native Americans, in Tucson, Arizona. He is the Co-Founder of The Human Sentience Project, LLC.