The God Instinct: The Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life

The God Instinct explores how people's everyday thoughts, behaviours and emotions betray an innate tendency to reason as though God were deeply invested in their public lives and secret affairs.In this entertaining and thought-provoking book, Jesse Bering unravels the evolutionary mystery of why we grapple for meaning, purpose and destiny in life. He argues that God is not merely an idea to be entertained or discarded based on the evidence. Nor is God a cultural invention, an existential band-aid, an opiate of the masses. Instead, Bering proposes, God is a way of thinking - one that evolved through our ancestors, millions of years ago, to keep us in check and give us the edge on our competitors.While a belief in higher forces may seem ridiculous to some, The God Instinct shows that it is hardwired into our genetic make-up, and carries with it massive evolutionary benefits.