The Evolution of Morality and Religion

Accepted codes of conduct and established religions are features of human societies throughout the world. Why should this be? In this book, biologist Donald Broom argues that these aspects of human culture have evolved as a consequence of natural selection; that morally acceptable behaviour benefits humans and other animals and that a principal function of religion is to underpin and encourage such behaviour. The author provides biological insights drawn especially from work on animal behaviour and presents ideas and information from the fields of philosophy and theology to produce a thought-provoking, interdisciplinary treatment. Scientists who read this book will gain an appreciation of the wider literature on morality and religion, and non-scientists will benefit from the author’s extensive knowledge

Charles Darwin: Origins and Arguments

One of the characteristics of humanity throughout our
history has been an almost insatiable need to question
ourselves in an attempt to find answers to the unknowable
aspects of our lives.We appear to require meaning, to
know where we are from and what we are doing here.The
religions of the world have dealt with these traits of
human nature by providing systems of understanding
which are based on faith and belief. Since the beginnings
of modern science during the Renaissance, when the
knowledge of the Greeks was rediscovered, this has led to
a conflict of ideas between theology and rationality.This is
nowhere more apparent than in the continuing debate
over what is now generally called Darwinian evolution,
after the man who has become the figurehead of a revolutionary
change in human thought.

Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language by Steven Pinker

Irregular verbs! The very thought is enough to give anyone who has struggled with them a headache. In Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language, MIT professor and evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker has taken that scourge of language students and used them ingeniously to throw light on how our minds work and languages evolve.

Pinker, a Montreal native whose wit and good looks have made him something of a scientific superstar, has written two other books for the intelligent layperson: The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (1994) and How the Mind Works (1998). The first explained current scientific thinking on why and how we speak. It argued that humans who could speak had an advantage in the evolutionary sweepstakes. The second explored other characteristics that appear to have been shaped by natural selection: falling in love, smiling, and liking sweet things, to name only a few.

Stephen Jay Gould Reflections on His View of Life

Although Steve Gould’s death on May 20, 2002, provided the
immediate impetus for this book, its original motivation came
from a review of his book Structure of Evolutionary Theory, published
just before his death. That review—by someone who in our view
clearly had no idea what punctuated equilibrium or species selection
were about—suggested to us that Steve’s science was even
more widely misunderstood than we had thought. We said to each
other at the time that someone needed to “do something” about
this situation.
Steve’s death took most of his students and close colleagues
by surprise, although a few of us were aware that he had been
ill. For many of us, it left a great hole in our lives. After his

Adapting Minds Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature

Evolutionary Psychologists claim that their account of human nature

follows from applying the principles of evolutionary biology to the study
of the human mind. Consequently, to truly understand Evolutionary Psychology,
and to be in a position to critically evaluate it, it is essential to
have a basic understanding of evolutionary theory. This chapter provides
the necessary introduction to the fundamentals of evolutionary biology.
For the initiate, this may be a slow go. But theoretical principles and concepts
explained in this chapter will repeatedly turn up later in our examination
of Evolutionary Psychology, so understanding them is a necessary
first step toward understanding Evolutionary Psychology.
In developing their account of human nature, Evolutionary Psychologists
build on (their interpretation of ) the reigning orthodoxy in evolutionary
biology. Aspects of this reigning orthodoxy are currently being