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The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures Paperback – September 28, 2010

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 187 ratings

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Highly intriguing...In this probing work of science reporting, New York Times correspondent Wade sheds light on what is sure to bea controversial new field of research in evolutionary psychology, genetics and anthropology...A turning point, and advancement, in the science-religion debate."
-
Kirkus Review

"[In
The Faith Instinct], longtime New York Times science reporter Wade deftly explores the evolutionary basis of religion. He draws on archaeology, social science, and natural science as he vigorously shows that the instinct for religious behavior is an evolved part of human nature...Wade's study compels us to reconsider the role of evolution in shaping even our most sacred human conditions."
-
Publishers Weekly

"
The Faith Instinct is a big winner! Its highly intelligent and much- needed narrative about why religions have proved essential to human success kept me engrossed from its beginning to its final pages."
-James D. Watson, author of
The Double Helix

"There is so much...in this compact account, including cultural-evolutionary explanations of the three great monotheisms-enough, in fact, to make it a cornerstone of popular religion-and-science studies."
-Booklist

"It is a rare book that will be read as eagerly by religion's defenders as by its detractors. Building on his rightly admired
Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has written just such a book."
-Jack Miles, author of
God: A Biography

"As he did earlier for human prehistory in
Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has delivered the most balanced and fact-based account available of a subject fundamental to human self-understanding. His scholarship is thorough, and his writing crystalline and exciting."
-Edward O. Wilson, author of
Consilience and The Future of Life

"Instead of attacking or defending religion, as so many have done lately, the biggest challenge is to explain how we became the only religious primate. In a spell-binding and wide-ranging account, Nicholas Wade offers a natural history of religion and convincingly explains why the phenomenon is here to stay."
-Frans de Waal, author of
The Age of Empathy

"Of all the recent books on religion, I believe
The Faith Instinct is simultaneously the most complete, the most correct, and the most accessible to the general public. Wade tells an extraordinary story in which morality, community, and religion are three strands of the same rope. Free of jargon and partisanship, The Faith Instinct is full of fascinating and up-to-the- minute scientific discoveries."
-Jonathan Haidt, author of
The Happiness Hypothesis

"With his new book,
New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade positions himself as a serious challenger to Steven Pinker for the title of Best Living Popularizer of the Human Sciences."
-The National Review

About the Author

Nicholas Wade received a BA in natural sciences from King’s College, Cambridge. He was the deputy editor of Nature magazine in London and then became that journal’s Washington correspondent. He joined Science magazine in Washington as a reporter and later moved to The New York Times, where he has been an editorial writer, concentrating on issues of defense, space, science, medicine, technology, genetics, molecular biology, the environment, and public policy, a science reporter, and a science editor.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0143118196
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (September 28, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780143118190
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143118190
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.73 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 187 ratings

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Nicholas Wade is the author of three books about recent human evolution. They are addressed to the general reader interested in knowing what the evolutionary past tells us about human nature and society today.

One, Before the Dawn, published in 2006, traces how people have evolved during the last 50,000 years.

The second book, The Faith Instinct (2009), argues that because of the survival advantage of religion, an instinct for religious behavior was favored by natural selection among early human societies and became universal in all their descendants.

A Troublesome Inheritance (2014), the third of the trilogy, looks at how human races evolved.

Wade was born in Aylesbury, England, and educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied natural sciences. He became a journalist writing about scientific issues, and has worked at Nature and Science, two weekly scientific magazines, and on the New York Times.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
187 global ratings

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Daveheart
3.0 out of 5 stars Unkonzentriert geschriebene Darstellung einer simplen These mit dubioser Bibliographie
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Bruno Lumachi
5.0 out of 5 stars Nicholas WADE, un grande archeologo!
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Richard Preschel
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Anthony Niessen
5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely informative and basically puts all religions on a similar platform
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