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THE FAITH INSTINCT
How Religion Evolved & Why it Endures
Nicholas Wade
(Penguin Press, 320pp, $17p/$26h)
I am sure the intellectuals of the world are befuddled. Why do so many humans, in fact the majority of us, believe in a Supreme Being, since there is so little empirical proof (the proof science lives by)? But then, when you think about it, scientists once believed the earth was flat and sun revolved around the earth, too and they had empirical proof. But somewhere along the way knowledge changed and we no longer accept their proof. Thats why I believe faith is superior to knowledgeknowledge has limits but faith is limitless, faith can be as big as God. Nicholas Wade, science writer for Nature and Science magazines, as well as the New York Times, in his book The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved & Why it Endures, attempts a scientific hypothesis why we humans so universally believe in a divine being.
So, I was curious but am not willing, as Wade, to remove God from the equation, and I wanted to know if, in fact, God has placed within us what Blaise Paschal called a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, a void only he can fill, a room inside us reserved only for God. Wade is a committed evolutionist, a fact which may put-off some, and he appeals to Darwin & Co. more often than the Bible for his proof. Unlike many of my colleagues, I am not as disturbed by evolution as they are. I hate circular arguments about things too wonderful to understand and unlike some of my friends, I simply do not know what method God used to bring about creation, I just know he did. And science doesnt tell me so. Faith does. Yet Wade, like every good scientist, is willing to go where angels fear to tread. Genetics, he believes, not God, predisposes us to believe.
Where Wade differs from other colleagues in his field, is in the fact that he believes that not just individuals, but entire cultures evolve, and with their evolution their religion, too. Someday, in the far distant future, I suppose, we will all evolve and finally be too refined to believe in religious fairy tales and accept the fact that faith is really biological, not spiritual. I mean, after all, Nicholas Wade and other scientists seem to have already achieved Nirvana.
Nevertheless, I think Wade is on to something. Perhaps we humans are hardwired to believe. Maybe faith is an ubiquitous instinct that God has placed within us all. In any case, The Faith Instinct says, religion is not going away anytime soon, its imprinted on the human genome. The first part of this claim, that religion is here to stay, is hard to refute. The second part is probably true, too, but raises the question, if not God then how?
And theres the rub.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author bio
Nicholas Wade was born in Aylesbury, England and educated at Eton College. He is the grandson of teacher and author Lawrence Beesley, a survivor of RMS Titanic. He earned a BA and an MA from King's College, Cambridge in 1960 and 1963. Wade emigrated to the US in 1970. Wade has been a science writer and editor for the journals Nature, from 1967 to 1971, and Science, from 1972 to 1982. He joined the New York Times in 1982 and retired in 2012 but freelances occasionally for his former employer. He had been an editorial writer covering science, environment and defense, and then an editor of the science section.
Ref: The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade - Penguin Books USA
How Religion Evolved & Why it Endures
Nicholas Wade
(Penguin Press, 320pp, $17p/$26h)
I am sure the intellectuals of the world are befuddled. Why do so many humans, in fact the majority of us, believe in a Supreme Being, since there is so little empirical proof (the proof science lives by)? But then, when you think about it, scientists once believed the earth was flat and sun revolved around the earth, too and they had empirical proof. But somewhere along the way knowledge changed and we no longer accept their proof. Thats why I believe faith is superior to knowledgeknowledge has limits but faith is limitless, faith can be as big as God. Nicholas Wade, science writer for Nature and Science magazines, as well as the New York Times, in his book The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved & Why it Endures, attempts a scientific hypothesis why we humans so universally believe in a divine being.
So, I was curious but am not willing, as Wade, to remove God from the equation, and I wanted to know if, in fact, God has placed within us what Blaise Paschal called a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man, a void only he can fill, a room inside us reserved only for God. Wade is a committed evolutionist, a fact which may put-off some, and he appeals to Darwin & Co. more often than the Bible for his proof. Unlike many of my colleagues, I am not as disturbed by evolution as they are. I hate circular arguments about things too wonderful to understand and unlike some of my friends, I simply do not know what method God used to bring about creation, I just know he did. And science doesnt tell me so. Faith does. Yet Wade, like every good scientist, is willing to go where angels fear to tread. Genetics, he believes, not God, predisposes us to believe.
Where Wade differs from other colleagues in his field, is in the fact that he believes that not just individuals, but entire cultures evolve, and with their evolution their religion, too. Someday, in the far distant future, I suppose, we will all evolve and finally be too refined to believe in religious fairy tales and accept the fact that faith is really biological, not spiritual. I mean, after all, Nicholas Wade and other scientists seem to have already achieved Nirvana.
Nevertheless, I think Wade is on to something. Perhaps we humans are hardwired to believe. Maybe faith is an ubiquitous instinct that God has placed within us all. In any case, The Faith Instinct says, religion is not going away anytime soon, its imprinted on the human genome. The first part of this claim, that religion is here to stay, is hard to refute. The second part is probably true, too, but raises the question, if not God then how?
And theres the rub.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author bio
Nicholas Wade was born in Aylesbury, England and educated at Eton College. He is the grandson of teacher and author Lawrence Beesley, a survivor of RMS Titanic. He earned a BA and an MA from King's College, Cambridge in 1960 and 1963. Wade emigrated to the US in 1970. Wade has been a science writer and editor for the journals Nature, from 1967 to 1971, and Science, from 1972 to 1982. He joined the New York Times in 1982 and retired in 2012 but freelances occasionally for his former employer. He had been an editorial writer covering science, environment and defense, and then an editor of the science section.
Ref: The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade - Penguin Books USA
