A really interesting text for those who want to deepen some aspects of human evolution. The first part of the book is perhaps a little difficult for those who, like me, do not have a specific preparation on the structure of the brain, although the author has clearly made every effort to explain an extremely difficult subject which, in part, is still not completely understood. The second part, however, is much simpler and very enlightening. The author rightly gives no answer to the possible question: was God out there, ready to manifest himself when man was ready to understand him, or did he emerge from the human brain, being therefore a creature and not a creator? Well, this is a matter of faith and, as I said, the author refrains. Whatever the truth may be (which we do not and cannot know), some facts are set out with linear clarity: 40,000 years ago human evolution had reached a stage where it was able to contemplate the transcendent (a time which, curiously enough, coincides with the biblical reckoning on the creation of the world) and this transcendent has taken on the same characteristics everywhere in the world, although it has 'manifested' itself separately, due to the scarcity of population and distances. Identical characteristics, albeit with different personifications, from a single god to several of those in charge of the most minute aspects of personal, social and political life in the various societies. This should lead to serious reflection on religions, which are nothing more than 'local' aspects of the mind turned to a god, and on the fact that the gods they lose are destined for museums instead of altars.

Fascinating look into the development of the human brain and religion. I'm not a religious person, but I can see how we created gods to sooth ourselves. When you think about it, we are the gods we created. We use religion, and membership in any given religion, as much as a group networking group and alliance of community, as a worshipping of a god, or gods. I think this book could have appeal to anyone interested in human development. I'm also not entirely convinced animals aren't sentinent and capable of imagining another's wants, needs, feelings, etc... I'm not convinced anyone can measure that in non-humans.

Torrey presents an evolutionary theory for the emergence of religion: gods are the result of complex theory of mind, something that was not possible until relatively late in human evolution. My background is in anthropology, not neurobiology, but the pieces I am familiar with seem good and reliable. Although I would argue with some of Torrey's interpretations, they're not outrageous or even uncommon ones. I am a little skeptical of the neuroscience, largely because I know that things that seem scientific and incomprehensible tend to feel more reliable than they necessarily are, but I'm as impressed as I can be by a book about the functions of the human brain (a subject about which so many people are so tremendously wrong that I don't know that really accurate popular science can be written).

Torrey relies a little bit too much on development as a mirror of evolution - both for human consciousness and for society and culture. The latter offends me more than the former, though both are unreliable guides, particularly when they're the only evidence offered. (Torrey also spends way too much space quoting anthropological texts from two centuries ago, which does not make those arguments more compelling.) However, he does an excellent job of emphasizing the unreliability of dates this old, the gradual effect of even "rapid" cultural change, and the range of human behavior that would have been important at any given time. The final chapter on other theories of religion is a useful summary both of Torrey's position and of the field in general, and provides a great many interesting references to follow up. This is a bit too academically-styled to be accessible to a popular audience, which is unfortunate, because it's an interesting theory that I think has the potential to be compelling.

This book was a piece of fresh air among all the books that I have read of late. I actually study anthropology and I have ya degree on it. For that reason reading this book was very interesting. I found myself back in my college classes where I love to listen at my professors talk about human evolution and the beginning of religion. Torrey makes it so easy to follow along the complex theories that anyone will be able to follow along.

Just what you'd expect if you peruse the religious texts that are out there. You'd come to the conclusion that they are flawed and man-made. But why, in an evolutionary sense, has man created gods? That is what this book discusses and what make it such an insightful and gripping read. Recommended!

Quite an essential book to understand the things going over the head is responsible for every mess that we've made as well as every milestones and achievements. Clearly and precisely explained details in an understandable manner.

One of the benefits of deciding to request books from NetGalley is that it exposes me to more academic science writing than I might otherwise find. Thanks to Columbia University Press for letting me read this. I’m really fascinated by the study of religion, from a sociological and anthropological perspective. I love to learn about the history of religions, and also about how we know what we know. Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods looks at the origins of gods—in the sense of anthropomorphic beings with discrete identities and roles—from the perspective of evolutionary neuroscience. E. Fuller Torrey traces the cognitive development of the human brain over time and attempts to link the advent of specific capabilities—increased intelligence, self-awareness, theory of mind, introspection, and autobiographical memory—to the development of the concept of gods. The result is an interesting mixture of evolution, cognitive neuroscience, and religious anthropology, although it’s probably heavier on the first two.

Discussion of religion aside, I found this book very clearly debunks some of the myths and pitfalls that crop up when thinking, as a lay person, about evolution. For example, during the introduction, Torrey explains that, when discussing when certain cognitive developments occurred is always going to be a vague thing:

> Arguing that a specific cognitive skill is associated with a specific stage of hominin evolution of course does not mean that this skill developed only at that time.

Evolution doesn’t have clear dividing lines. Torrey reminds us throughout the book that our record is scattered, incomplete, and biased (in terms of what types of materials are likely to be preserved and where we are likely to find them). The study of evolution and human prehistory, then, is fraught with all the complications that this imperfect picture of the past must create. Ultimately, we have to accept that there are some things we just may never know for certain, even if we can come up with a few very compelling, albeit competing, theories.

I also like how Torrey nudges us away from the simplistic picture of the evolutionary ladder. For those of us fortunate enough to actually learn about evolution in schools, sometimes we get the mistaken impression that it was a discrete and one-dimensional progression, from Australopithecus to H. habilis to H. erectus and so on. And indeed, at one point this might have been the thinking—but science changes, even as our schools and textbooks are slow to adapt:

> Previously, it was thought that Homo erectus had descended from Homo habilis, but recent archeological research suggests that Homo habilis and Homo erectus lived side by side in what is now northern Kenya “for almost half a million years,” making this evolutionary sequence less likely.

Additionally, Torrey does a good job communicating the impressive spans of time at work here. H. habilis and H. erectus lived side by side for 500,000 years! That’s longer than we’ve been around as a species and about 100 times longer than we’ve had writing.

On a related note, you really do get a sense of how human development seems to have accelerated dramatically over the past 100,000 years. We went from nascent tribal groupings to civilizations to spaceflight in what is practically an evolutionary blink of an eye. Each cognitive development, whatever spurred it on, made it easier for the next development to happen. Evolution is somewhat random, but it is also a series of intense feedback cycles.

I also appreciate how Torrey links cognitive development so explicitly to technological and cultural innovation. This might seem self-evident, but we forget this and tend to project our own, current cognitive capacity backwards. So it wasn’t just a case of, for X thousands of years, no human ever noticed something or tried whatever it was that led to an invention or a new idea. As Torrey illustrates, it might have been that, for that long, we were neurologically incapable of noticing or of having that idea or of doing whatever was required to make that leap.

It’s just so weird and wonderful to think about how the structures in our brains literally make us who we are and determine how we can think!

Torrey goes into great detail explaining human evolutionary history. As you can see, this is what stuck with me most. For better or worse, the actual thesis—how we developed ideas of gods—sometimes felt like it was lurking in the background, waiting in the wings for us to get far enough along in history for Torrey to really talk about the evidence at hand. It isn’t until the penultimate chapter or so that we actually talk much about gods per se. I don’t think this is a fault of the book’s structure itself so much as, you know, the facts available to us. Just be aware, going in, that this is more so a book about evolution and neuroscience that just so happens to talk a lot about gods and beliefs.

The last chapter very briefly examines some of the other theories, most of them sociological, that have been proposed to explain gods. I don’t want to be too harsh here, because Torrey up front notes that this is about as short of a survey as you can get and still call it a survey. Still, it is very concise. Of Julian Jaynes’ famous bicameral mind theory, Torrey sums up his dismissal in a single sentence: “Jaynes’s thesis is at odds with almost everything known about the evolution of the human brain”. Although I lol’d at such treatment, I was hoping for a bit more of a takedown. I guess that’s what the 40% of the book that’s endnotes are for? (No joke, I love a book that is significantly composed of endnotes.)

Anyone who has a basic scientific understanding of human evolution (i.e., you won’t find the language in here too difficult) will probably enjoy improving the depth of their understanding here. If, like me, you want to learn a lot about the history of religion, you’re not necessarily going to learn as much as you might think, but there’s still some good stuff here. In the end, Torrey succeeds in showing me how the gradual evolution of the human brain played an integral role in our ability to conceive of and use gods, whatever they might be.

Review will be published on Goodreads on September 11, 2017.

This book presents an argument in a very linear and understandable fashion. There were many ahha moments as all the pieces fell into place. Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how humans evolved and how how "gods" came to play an important role.

A fascinating read on how the brain development lead to the beginnings of religion. It makes you wonder when or if, evolutionarily speaking, the next leap will occur.

An utterly fascinating, absorbing account of the cognitive development of man leading to the origins of religion.

Over the last 200,000 years, the human brain has gone through stages of development which can be compared with the development of a child's brain in the first few years of life. What took homo sapiens 160,000 or so years takes a child 6 or 7 years. Around 40,000 years ago, we became capable of 'autobiographical memory', that is the ability to project ourselves forwards and backwards in time. We became able to predict future events with some accuracy, allowing us to plan ahead more skilfully. It was at this stage in our evolution that we began to comprehend more fully the inevitability of death and most likely to develop a fear of death.

The acquisition of what is termed 'autobiographical memory', together with the simultaneous development of other cognitive skills, led to the agricultural revolution of around 10,000 years ago. Communal living and working, as opposed to a more nomadic lifestyle, led to a dramatic increase in population. A settled life meant that the dead could be buried next to the living and so ancestor worship became increasingly important and elaborate.

By 6500 years ago, as civilisation progressed and the world population increased, a few important ancestors crossed a line and became gods. Political leaders soon recognised their usefulness and deployed them beyond the original focus on life and death to be instrumental in secular life, to help with wars and to cast judgement, for example.

In Mesopotamia around 4,500 years ago, the world's first civilisation, gods were anthropomorphised to a level where they behaved like the later Greek gods (who had their origins here). They behaved like humans but with supernatural powers. They ate and drank, fell in love and got married, had children, and all their needs were taken care of in the temples where they were given food and drink, were clothed and entertained. The world's first civilisation was firmly built on religious foundations that eventually pervaded every aspect of cultural, social and political life. Remarkably, parallel developments can be seen across the civilised world at this time, from Mesopotamia to Europe, to the Indus Valley, to China and beyond.

The evolutionary theory of the creation of gods presented in this book isn't new. It was first proposed by Charles Darwin. The explanation given here, however, clearly explains cognitive development in physical terms in a way that even a non scientist like myself can easily follow and actually enjoy learning about it. The social and cultural aspects of development are absorbing and have given me an almost completely new perspective on our origins.

Finally, the last chapters look at comparative theories of religion and a summary highlights the key points that all religions in the major civilisations have shared:

1. An answer to the problem of death. God provided immortality / eternal life.
2. Psychological and social benefits from group membership.
3. The sacred and the secular have usually developed hand in hand. For example, in Mesopotamia the temples of the gods controlled the workshops and the trade on which the economy was built. Political leaders aligned themselves with gods, often claiming divine status themselves.
4. The success of emerging religions is dependent upon the economic, political or military success of their adherents, e.g. Christianity through Rome, Buddhism through Ashoka.
5. New religions borrow gods and religious ideas from older religions. The Judeo-Christian religion is based on Mesopotamian religion from which it took the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel and the creation of man, and Zoroastrianism with its all-powerful Ahura Mazda and its belief in saviours, three of which were to be born of virgins and the last of which was to appear on the Day of Judgement.

To this day, a belief in gods has continued to be one of modern homo sapiens defining characteristics. For thousands of years now, gods have provided explanations for natural phenomena and answers to philosophical questions. Why does religion have such a stranglehold over our species? The answer is given that "we are not only clever, aware, empathic, and self reflective; we also have an autobiographical memory that allows us to integrate our past as we contemplate our future. This has made us, in the words of Karen Armstrong, <i>homo religiosus</i>.

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for an ARC.