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Conceiving God : the cognitive origin and evolution of religion / David Lewis-Williams.

by Lewis-Williams, J. David.

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Thames & Hudson, c2010.

Religion, Prehistoric.

Evolution -- Religious aspects.

Religion -- Philosophy.

9780500051641 (hbk.)

050005164X (hbk.)

320 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Prolegomena : windows on the past and some of the questions they raise -- A new way of thinking -- From skies to species -- A tale of two scientists -- Explaining religion -- Religious experience -- Religious belief -- Religious practice -- Stone Age religion -- Hildegard on the African veld -- God's empire strikes back -- Epilegomena : of babies and bathwater.

This book is a controversial exploration of the origin of religion in the neurology of the human brain. The author first describes how science developed within the cocoon of religion and then shows how the natural functioning of the human brain creates experiences that can lead to belief in a supernatural realm, beings, and interventions. Once people have these experiences, they formulate beliefs about them, and thus creeds are born. Forty thousand years ago, people were leaving traces in the archaeological record of activities that we can label religious, and the author discusses in detail the evidence preserved in the Volp Caves in France. He also shows that mental imagery produced by the functioning of the human brain can be detected in widely separated religious communities such as Hildegard of Bingen's in medieval Europe or the San hunters of southern Africa.

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