Gee’s Reviews > Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion > Status Update

acquiring a theory of mind, Archaic Homo sapiens acquired the ability to appreciate that gods also had thoughts. Then, by acquiring a second-order theory of mind—introspection—early Homo sapiens acquired an ability to think about the fact that the gods may be thinking about us, and what they may be thinking, and what we think about what the gods are thinking about us

how a theory of mind leads to assumptions about gods. He noted that it is only after we acquire a theory of mind that we can imagine the mind of a god. We assume, of course, that the god also has a theory of mind and thus the god can imagine what we mortals are thinking

Bering summarized it: “God was born of theory of mind.”

The superior parietal area (BA 7), also known as the precuneus, performs a wide variety of cognitive, sensory, and visual functions. Both the superior and the inferior (BA 39 and 40) parietal areas play important roles in intelligence and have also been linked to other intellectual functions, such as deductive reasoning

frontal pole (BA 10), lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9 and 46), and anterior cingulate (BA 24 and 32). The inferior parietal lobe (BA 39 and 40) is also activated by the WAIS. When other tests of intelligence are used, such as the measurement of blood brain flow while people are playing chess, another frontal area (premotor cortex, BA 6) and another parietal area (superior parietal, BA 7) are also prominent