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Will M. Gervais’s Followers (2)
Will M. Gervais
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Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.
“as far as we know every single sentient being in the universe that’s ever believed in a god is a member of our odd little species, and almost every member of our species has believed in a god. To scientists interested in evolution and human nature, religion is a puzzle that absolutely screams to be solved.
In this book, I’ll argue that religion is not *an evolutionary puzzle* so much as *two evolutionary puzzles* that can only be solved together. First is the Puzzle of Faith: the puzzle of how Homo sapiens—and Homo sapiens alone— came to be a religious species. Second, there is the Puzzle of Atheism: how disbelief in gods can exist within our uniquely religious species.”
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
In this book, I’ll argue that religion is not *an evolutionary puzzle* so much as *two evolutionary puzzles* that can only be solved together. First is the Puzzle of Faith: the puzzle of how Homo sapiens—and Homo sapiens alone— came to be a religious species. Second, there is the Puzzle of Atheism: how disbelief in gods can exist within our uniquely religious species.”
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
“The poetry underlying science comes from its inevitable human imperfections. Science is a messy process of discovery, revision, and (at its best) enlightenment. It is like a complex tapestry that is being woven on one end while being torn apart at other ends, all with threads that we are learning to spin from raw materials on the fly.”
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
“The success of religions, however, does not at all imply their inevitability. The fact that most of our species have been religious believers does not mean that atheism is unnatural, or even unlikely. It just means that our species has only recently (in cultural evolutionary scales) developed the sorts of societies in which religion loses its influence, and in which atheism becomes easy.”
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
― Disbelief: The Origins of Atheism in a Religious Species
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