The Skimmer

The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures

By Nicholas Wade

Penguin Press; 310 pages

Whether a higher power exists is debatable, but widespread belief in one has helped humanity advance for millennia. Wade, a New York Times reporter, defends that provocative thesis with evidence drawn from biology, archaeology and anthropology. Humans may be innately selfish, he argues, but early hunter-gatherers needed to subordinate self-interest to the will of the group in order to survive, and "the solution that evolved was religious behavior"--humankind's best organizing principle. Ritual chants and dances fostered kinship and inspired tribes to battle outside threats. As language developed, people ascribed their good fortune to the supernatural, and efforts to please a deity later kept order in nascent civil societies. As our ancestors learned to read, they wrote sacred texts; as they created social hierarchies, they introduced priests. Religious fervor has dwindled of late, Wade argues, because Judaism, Christianity and Islam have failed to keep pace with human knowledge. For faith to thrive, religions must adapt. History shows they can.

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