Amgad’s Reviews > God: A Human History > Status Update

The truthful answer is that we don't know where did the idea of the soul come from. what seems clear, however, is that belief in the soul maybe humanity's first belief, if the cognitive theory of religion is correct, belief in the soul is what led to believe in God. the origin of the religious impulse, in other words, is not rooted to our quest for meaning or our fear of the unknown.

What remains undeniable is that religious belief is so wide-spread that it must be considered an elemental part of the human experience. We are homo religious, not in our desire for creeds or institutions, nor in our commitments to specific gods and theologies, but in our existential striving toward transcendence: toward that which lies beyond the manifest world.