Table of Contents
Preface 15
Part 1 Seeing God in a New Light
Chapter 1 Is God beyond the Reach of Science? 21
A Road to Damascus Not Taken 22
What Is the Real Reason for Belief in God? 24
A Sense of Presence 26
Requirements for a Scientific Theory of Religion 30
Chapter 2 Illusions Can Be Broken 35
What Does It Mean to Call Something an Illusion? 35
The Illusory Perception of God 37
Parable of the Mysterious Witness 38
Mental Gymnastics 39
Chapter 3 The Elephant in the Room 43
Is There a God Instinct? 43
Is God an Evolutionary By-Product? 45
Is God a Virus? 47
Is God a Figment of Our Cognition? 49
Why Is God a Cruel Tyrant? 51
Why the Obsession with Death? 53
Something Is Missing from This Picture 53
Chapter 4 The God-Shaped Vacuum 55
Neonatal Survival 56
A Sea Turtle's Infancy 57
Human Infancy and the Presence of God 60
The Innate Image of Mother 62
The Gull-Shaped Vacuum 65
Implications 68
Part 2 Evidence and Questions
Chapter 5 Infantile Imagery in Religion 73
Religious Experience 74
Prayer 78
Ritual 81
Hymns 82
Popular Religious Literature 85
The Messiah 88
Sacred Texts 88
Sermons 94
Sunday School Lessons 96
Secular Sources 98
Art and Architecture 99
Role Reversals 101
Chapter 6 The Nature and Nurture of Religious Experience 105
Freud Upgraded 106
Attachment as a Biological Need 107
God as an Attachment Figure 110
Correspondence and Compensation 111
A Menu of Life Paths 116
The Raw Material of Evolution 118
Oedipus Wrecks 121
Chapter 7 Two Biological Roots: Social Cooperation and Neonatal Survival 123
The Two-Faced God 125
The Dichotomy of Religion 126
Spiritual but Not Religious 129
Our Coins, the Pledge, and Prayer in Public Schools 136
The Mysterious Appeal of the Shakers 140
Is Religion Only Two-Dimensional? 144
Chapter 8 Is God an Evolutionary Hack? 147
Why Would the Innate Model Persist beyond Infancy? 148
The Hack of Infantile, Maternal, and Sexual Love 150
Why Are Women More Religious Than Men? 154
Why the Obsession with Sex? 157
The Hack of Hypersociality 163
Chapter 9 From Cuttlefish to Cults 165
How or Why? 166
Malignant Narcissism as an Adaptation 167
Cross-Dressing Cuttlefish 168
Leaders, Followers, and Evolutionary Stability 169
Sacrifice as a Biological Signal 170
Human Nature Run Amok 172
Chapter 10 Creator, Mother, Fluid, Etc. 175
Why Is God a Creator? 175
Why Is God Not Female? 177
Why Are Priests Not Female? 178
Why Do Believers Pray? 181
Why Ecstasy and Violence? 182
Why So Many Nasty Gods? 184
What about Godless Religions? 185
Why Are There Atheists? 188
Chapter 11 Does an Infant Have a Mind? 195
Infantile Amnesia and Neural Development 195
Selective Attention as a Window to the Mind 197
The Sense of Motion 199
The Smell and Taste of Mother 202
Rewarding Touch 204
Motherese 207
The Perception of Faces 209
Seeing Biological Motion 215
Imitation and the Expectation of Mother 218
Isn't This Illusion Maladaptive? 224
Chapter 12 A Trick of the Brain 231
Innate Knowledge Is the Core of Human Nature 233
Faith Is Tenacious Because It Is Addictive 236
An Embodied Self Reads the Minds of Others 239
God's Presence Is a Drug-Free Hallucination 246
The Trick 250
Chapter 13 The Supernormal Phantom 253
Are We All Born Atheists? 253
Other Things Explained 257
Supporting Evidence 259
Predictions 261
Red Pill or Truman's Boat? 263
Part 3 Personal Implications
Chapter 14 The Illusion of Immortality 267
Mind-Brain Unity 269
Mind-Brain Dualism 281
Chapter 15 What If God Is Not Real? 287
A Drastic Change in Worldview 288
God, Your Loved Ones, and You 290
Coping with Death 293
God, Humanity, and the Earth 296
Acknowledgments 307
Appendix 1 The Stumbling Block of Creationism 309
Misconceptions 310
Recommendations 318
Adjustments in Thinking 318
Appendix 2 A Psychometric Test 319
Notes 321
References 365
Index 423