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

Bering, Jesse

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857886003 ISBN 13: 9781857886009

Publisher: John Murray Business, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Jesse Bering, Ph.D. , is a regular contributor to Scientific American, Slate, and Das Magazin (Switzerland) . His writing has also been featured in many other sources, including New York Magazine, Guardian, Discover, The New Republic, NPR, and the BBC . Bering is the former director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen s University, Belfast, and began his career as a psychology professor at the University of Arkansas.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Murray Business
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1857886003
• ISBN 13: 9781857886009
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288