Darwin's Cathedral

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (ISBN 9780226901350) is a 2002 book by David Sloan Wilson which proposes that religion is a multi-level adaptation—i.e., a product of cultural evolution developed through multi-level selection.[1][2]

Reception[edit]

The Journal of the American Academy of Religion called it "a welcome book because it unsettles everybody, evolutionary biologist and religious believer alike".[3] Jared Diamond in the New York Review of Books called it a "thought-provoking book" which "will stimulate each reader to examine his or her personal view of religion's future".[4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Andrew Brown, "'I wanted to show how niceness evolves'", The Guardian, July 24, 2003.
  2. ^ Natalie Angier, "A Conversation with David Sloan Wilson; The Origin of Religions, From a Distinctly Darwinian View", The New York Times, December 24, 2002.
  3. ^ "Review: Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society", Journal of the American Academy of Religion (2004) 72 (3): 800-802. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfh079
  4. ^ Jared Diamond, "The Religious Success Story", The New York Review of Books, November 7, 2002