-
The Evolution of God
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $20.63
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
Clear Explanation of How the Mind Works
- By George on 08-10-17
By: Robert Wright
-
The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
-
-
Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
-
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
-
How Mindfulness Can Heal the World
- Evolving Beyond Tribalism
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Robert Wright
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A leading thinker in the field of secular spirituality reveals why mindfulness is perhaps our most promising tool for creating real change in a polarized world. An audio workshop filled with insights and practices to help us evolve past our genetically inherent biases, develop greater clarity and inclusiveness, cultivate compassion, and more.
-
-
Wright's ideas is always worth grappling with
- By Matt Welch on 12-17-20
By: Robert Wright
-
God
- A Human History
- By: Reza Aslan
- Narrated by: Reza Aslan
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, "Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless if we are believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves."
-
-
His best work yet
- By Jeff M on 11-15-17
By: Reza Aslan
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
Clear Explanation of How the Mind Works
- By George on 08-10-17
By: Robert Wright
-
The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
-
-
Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
-
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
-
How Mindfulness Can Heal the World
- Evolving Beyond Tribalism
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Robert Wright
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A leading thinker in the field of secular spirituality reveals why mindfulness is perhaps our most promising tool for creating real change in a polarized world. An audio workshop filled with insights and practices to help us evolve past our genetically inherent biases, develop greater clarity and inclusiveness, cultivate compassion, and more.
-
-
Wright's ideas is always worth grappling with
- By Matt Welch on 12-17-20
By: Robert Wright
-
God
- A Human History
- By: Reza Aslan
- Narrated by: Reza Aslan
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, "Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless if we are believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves."
-
-
His best work yet
- By Jeff M on 11-15-17
By: Reza Aslan
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
The Better Angels of Our Nature
- Why Violence Has Declined
- By: Steven Pinker
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 36 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence.
-
-
I'd kill for another book this good
- By Eric on 11-11-11
By: Steven Pinker
-
How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
-
-
Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
Anti-Judaism
- The Western Tradition
- By: David Nirenberg
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.
-
-
Great Book: Terrible Narrator
- By LB on 12-29-16
By: David Nirenberg
-
The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
-
-
Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
-
Zealot
- The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
- By: Reza Aslan
- Narrated by: Reza Aslan
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor.
-
-
Vivid and well-researched
- By Tad Davis on 07-21-13
By: Reza Aslan
-
Misquoting Jesus
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today.
-
-
Understanding Manuscripts
- By KaHef on 11-22-06
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
The Case for God
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable?
-
-
Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
- By John Doyle on 02-18-11
By: Karen Armstrong
-
Maps of Meaning
- The Architecture of Belief
- By: Jordan B. Peterson
- Narrated by: Jordan B. Peterson
- Length: 30 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos comes a provocative hypothesis that explores the connection between what modern neuropsychology tells us about the brain and what rituals, myths, and religious stories have long narrated. A cutting-edge work that brings together neuropsychology, cognitive science, and Freudian and Jungian approaches to mythology and narrative, Maps of Meaning presents a rich theory that makes the wisdom and meaning of myth accessible to the critical modern mind.
-
-
This is NOT an easy book
- By AutismPhotoshop on 06-19-18
-
Journeys to Heaven and Hell
- Tours of the Afterlife in the Early Christian Tradition
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: John Tefler
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged.
-
-
New Hits Here. Not Repackaged Hits.
- By Adam on 06-19-22
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
The End of Faith
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is an impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith. This important and timely work delivers a startling analysis of the clash of faith and reason in today's world. Harris offers a vivid historical tour of mankind's willingness to suspend reason in favor of religious beliefs, even when those beliefs are used to justify harmful behavior and sometimes heinous crimes.
-
-
Good book, bad narrator
- By wlong on 09-17-10
By: Sam Harris
-
The Believing Brain
- From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies - How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths
- By: Michael Shermer
- Narrated by: Michael Shermer
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this, his magnum opus, the world’s best known skeptic and critical thinker Dr. Michael Shermer—founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and perennial monthly columnist (“Skeptic”) for Scientific American—presents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished.
-
-
A reader's digest version of many other good books
- By K. S. on 06-29-11
By: Michael Shermer
Publisher's summary
He explains why spirituality has a role today and why science, contrary to conventional wisdom, affirms the validity of the religious quest. And this previously unrecognized evolutionary logic points not toward continued religious extremism but to future harmony. Nearly a decade in the making, The Evolution of God is a breathtaking reexamination of the past and a visionary look forward.
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Anti-Judaism
- The Western Tradition
- By: David Nirenberg
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.
-
-
Great Book: Terrible Narrator
- By LB on 12-29-16
By: David Nirenberg
-
How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- By: Richard M. Smoley
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
-
-
Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
-
Battling the Gods
- Atheism in the Ancient World
- By: Tim Whitmarsh
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms.
-
-
We have a history as long and as rich as any relig
- By Glencannnon on 08-13-19
By: Tim Whitmarsh
-
How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
-
-
Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
- By: James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
-
-
life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
-
Not in God's Name
- Confronting Religious Violence
- By: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Sacks
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit and individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls "altruistic evil", violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the only natural outcome.
-
-
excellent book
- By Trejac on 07-26-21
-
Anti-Judaism
- The Western Tradition
- By: David Nirenberg
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This incisive history upends the complacency that confines anti-Judaism to the ideological extremes in the Western tradition. With deep learning and elegance, David Nirenberg shows how foundational anti-Judaism is to the history of the West. Questions of how we are Jewish and, more critically, how and why we are not have been churning within the Western imagination throughout its history. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans; Christians and Muslims of every period; even the secularists of modernity have used Judaism in constructing their visions of the world.
-
-
Great Book: Terrible Narrator
- By LB on 12-29-16
By: David Nirenberg
-
How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- By: Richard M. Smoley
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
-
-
Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
-
Battling the Gods
- Atheism in the Ancient World
- By: Tim Whitmarsh
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before the European Enlightenment and the Darwinian revolution, which we often take to mark the birth of the modern revolt against religious explanations of the world, brave people doubted the power of the gods. Religion provoked skepticism in ancient Greece, and heretics argued that history must be understood as a result of human action rather than divine intervention. They devised theories of the cosmos based on matter and notions of matter based on atoms.
-
-
We have a history as long and as rich as any relig
- By Glencannnon on 08-13-19
By: Tim Whitmarsh
-
How Jesus Became God
- The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.
-
-
Wishing for a bit more meat on the bones
- By Darwin8u on 04-09-14
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
Creating Christ
- How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity
- By: James S. Valliant, C. W. Fahy
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This explosive work of history unearths clues that finally demonstrate the truth about one of the world's great religions: that it was born out of the conflict between the Romans and messianic Jews who fought a bitter war with each other during the first century. The Romans employed a tactic they routinely used to conquer and absorb other nations: they grafted their imperial rule onto the religion of the conquered.
-
-
life is one big lie
- By Anonymous User on 12-25-19
By: James S. Valliant, and others
-
Not in God's Name
- Confronting Religious Violence
- By: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Sacks
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this powerful and timely book, one of the most admired and authoritative religious leaders of our time tackles the phenomenon of religious extremism and violence committed in the name of God. If religion is perceived as being part of the problem, Rabbi Sacks argues, then it must also form part of the solution. When religion becomes a zero-sum conceit and individuals are motivated by what Rabbi Sacks calls "altruistic evil", violence between peoples of different beliefs appears to be the only natural outcome.
-
-
excellent book
- By Trejac on 07-26-21
-
A New Kind of Christianity
- Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
- By: Brian D. McLaren
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the church. Not since the Reformation five centuries ago have so many Christians come together to ask whether the church is in sync with their deepest beliefs and commitments. These believers range from evangelicals to mainline Protestants to Catholics, and the person who best represents them is author and pastor Brian McLaren. In this much anticipated book, McLaren examines ten questions facing today's church - questions about how to articulate the faith itself, the nature of its authority, who God is....
-
-
Clear, Careful, Considerate Confrontation
- By Celia on 09-10-12
By: Brian D. McLaren
-
A History of Judaism
- By: Martin Goodman
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.
-
-
Not easy to follow.
- By Eric on 03-12-19
By: Martin Goodman
-
Not the Impossible Faith
- By: Richard Carrier
- Narrated by: Richard Carrier
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written with occasional humor and an easy style, and thoroughly referenced, with many entertaining "gotcha!" moments, Not the Impossible Faith is a must-listen for anyone interested in the origins of Christianity. Richard Carrier, PhD, is an expert in the history of the ancient world and a critic of Christian attempts to distort history in defense of their faith.
-
-
Bloody awful audiobook...
- By Amazon Customer on 10-23-13
By: Richard Carrier
-
Unbelievable
- Why Neither Ancient Creeds nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today
- By: John Shelby Spong
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Five hundred years after Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses ushered in the Reformation, best-selling author and controversial bishop and teacher John Shelby Spong delivers 12 forward-thinking theses to spark a new reformation to reinvigorate Christianity and ensure its future. Spong contends that there is mounting pressure among Christians for a radically new kind of Christianity - a faith deeply connected to the human experience instead of outdated dogma.
-
-
great
- By Brian Diffley on 03-27-21
-
Jesus
- Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this highly accessible discussion, Bart Ehrman examines the most recent textual and archaeological sources for the life of Jesus, along with the history of first-century Palestine, drawing a fascinating portrait of the man and his teachings. Ehrman shows us what historians have long known about the Gospels and the man who stands behind them. Through a careful evaluation of the New Testament (and other surviving sources, including the more recently discovered Gospels of Thomas and Peter), Ehrman proposes that Jesus can be best understood as an apocalyptic prophet.
-
-
I must read for those whose wanting to expand their insight from a single perspective (devotional) to include historical
- By RGO on 11-25-19
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
The Great Shift
- Encountering God in Biblical Times
- By: James L. Kugel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.
-
-
Changing Conceptions of God and the Self
- By DJ on 10-27-22
By: James L. Kugel
-
You Shall Be as Gods
- A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition
- By: Erich Fromm
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Old Testament is one of the most carefully studied books in the world’s history. It is also one of the most misunderstood. This founding text of the world’s three largest religions is also, Erich Fromm argues, an impressive radical humanist text. He sees the stories of mankind’s transition from divided clans to united brotherhood as a tribute to the human power to overcome. Filled with hopeful symbolism, You Shall Be as Gods shows how the Old Testament and its tradition is an inspiring ode to human potential.
-
-
Fascinating new ideas
- By D. Hansen on 11-24-16
By: Erich Fromm
-
The Bible's Cutting Room Floor
- The Holy Scriptures Missing from Your Bible
- By: Joel M. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Bible’s Cutting Room Floor, acclaimed author and translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman gives us the stories and other texts that didn’t make it into the Bible even though they offer penetrating insight into the Bible and its teachings. The Book of Genesis tells us about Adam and Eve’s time in the Garden of Eden, but not their saga after they get kicked out or the lessons they have for us about good and evil.
-
-
Good content, rather poor presentation by narrator
- By J_T on 12-28-16
By: Joel M. Hoffman
-
Scripture and the Authority of God
- How to Read the Bible Today
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this revised and expanded edition of The Last Word, Wright, Bishop of Durham, one of the preeminent Bible scholars of our day and author of such beloved works as After You Believe and Simply Christian, gives new life to the old, tattered doctrine of the authority of Scripture, delivering a fresh, helpful, and concise statement on the current battles for the Bible and restoring Scripture as a place to find God's voice.
-
-
Takes scripture very seriously
- By Adam Shields on 05-31-11
By: N. T. Wright
-
Understanding the Koran
- A Quick Christian Guide to the Muslim Holy Book
- By: Mateen Elass
- Narrated by: Don Reed
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A quick non-technical introduction to the Koran designed to help Christians understand a hidden book revered by 1.3 billion Muslims, covering the background on its writing, a summary of its contents, a perspective on how it’s used and viewed by Muslims, a comparison of differences and similarities to the Bible, and some suggestions on how it should and should not be used in conversations with Muslims.
-
-
Favors Christianity
- By Dianne on 12-18-15
By: Mateen Elass
-
A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
-
-
an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
-
Surprised by Hope
- Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, Christians have been asking, "If you died tonight, do you know where you would go?" It turns out that many believers have been giving the wrong answer. It is not heaven. Wright outlines the present confusion about a Christian's future hope and shows how it is deeply intertwined with how we live today. Wright asserts that Christianity's most distinctive idea is bodily resurrection, and provides a magisterial defense for a literal resurrection of Jesus. Wright then explores our expectation of "new heavens and a new earth".
-
-
A valuable yet partial lens for viewing mission
- By Scott Macdonald on 01-16-19
By: N. T. Wright
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
-
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
-
The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
-
-
Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
Clear Explanation of How the Mind Works
- By George on 08-10-17
By: Robert Wright
-
How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- By: Richard M. Smoley
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
-
-
Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
-
God
- A Human History
- By: Reza Aslan
- Narrated by: Reza Aslan
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, "Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless if we are believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves."
-
-
His best work yet
- By Jeff M on 11-15-17
By: Reza Aslan
-
How Mindfulness Can Heal the World
- Evolving Beyond Tribalism
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Robert Wright
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A leading thinker in the field of secular spirituality reveals why mindfulness is perhaps our most promising tool for creating real change in a polarized world. An audio workshop filled with insights and practices to help us evolve past our genetically inherent biases, develop greater clarity and inclusiveness, cultivate compassion, and more.
-
-
Wright's ideas is always worth grappling with
- By Matt Welch on 12-17-20
By: Robert Wright
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
-
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
-
The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
-
-
Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
Clear Explanation of How the Mind Works
- By George on 08-10-17
By: Robert Wright
-
How God Became God
- What Scholars Are Really Saying About God and the Bible
- By: Richard M. Smoley
- Narrated by: Richard M. Smoley
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This epic, thrilling journey through Bible scholarship and ancient religion shows how much of Scripture is historically false - yet the ancient writings also resound with theologies that crisscrossed the primeval world and that direct us today toward a deep, authentic inner experience of the truly sacred.
-
-
Just Okay.
- By Thom on 10-28-21
-
God
- A Human History
- By: Reza Aslan
- Narrated by: Reza Aslan
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In layered prose and with thoughtful, accessible scholarship, Aslan narrates the history of religion as one long and remarkably cohesive attempt to understand the divine by giving it human traits and emotions. According to Aslan, this innate desire to humanize God is hardwired in our brains, making it a central feature of nearly every religious tradition. As Aslan writes, "Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless if we are believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves."
-
-
His best work yet
- By Jeff M on 11-15-17
By: Reza Aslan
-
How Mindfulness Can Heal the World
- Evolving Beyond Tribalism
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Robert Wright
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A leading thinker in the field of secular spirituality reveals why mindfulness is perhaps our most promising tool for creating real change in a polarized world. An audio workshop filled with insights and practices to help us evolve past our genetically inherent biases, develop greater clarity and inclusiveness, cultivate compassion, and more.
-
-
Wright's ideas is always worth grappling with
- By Matt Welch on 12-17-20
By: Robert Wright
-
Aristotle's Children
- How Christian, Muslims and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom
- By: Richard E. Rubenstein
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author Richard E. Rubenstein brings the past to life in this engrossing story of social, religious, and scientific revolution during one of the darkest periods in European history. When a group of Dark Ages scholars rediscovered the works of Aristotle, the great thinker's ideas ignited a firestorm of enlightened thought. This is the endlessly fascinating account of the pivotal period in history when the modern era took root.
-
-
Interesting story of the rediscovery of Aristotle
- By John on 12-16-04
-
The Case for God
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable?
-
-
Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
- By John Doyle on 02-18-11
By: Karen Armstrong
-
The Arab Conquests
- The Landmark Library, Book 13
- By: Justin Marozzi
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the seventh and eighth centuries AD, armies inspired by the new religion of Islam burst out of Arabia to subjugate the Levant, southwest Asia, North Africa and the Iberian peninsula. These Arab conquests followed immediately after the Prophet Mohammed's death in 632. By this time, against all the odds, he had managed to unite the feuding tribes of Arabia at the point of his sword. The Muslim conquests lasted until 750, by which time several generations of marauding Arab armies had carved out an Islamic empire which, in size and population, rivalled that of Rome at its zenith.
By: Justin Marozzi
-
The Alphabet Versus the Goddess
- The Conflict Between Word and Image
- By: Leonard Shlain
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 24 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who changed the sex of God? This groundbreaking book proposes that the rise of alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations. Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values.
-
-
Can't Even Get Started
- By Marie on 02-08-19
By: Leonard Shlain
-
The Great Shift
- Encountering God in Biblical Times
- By: James L. Kugel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.
-
-
Changing Conceptions of God and the Self
- By DJ on 10-27-22
By: James L. Kugel
-
Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
- By: Stephen Batchelor
- Narrated by: Stephen Batchelor
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western audiences. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author's unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker.
-
-
I got the audio book, I listened to it on my 900mi
- By fred on 07-29-23
-
All Things Shining
- Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular World
- By: Hubert Dreyfus, Sean Dorrance Kelly
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The religious turn to their faith to find meaning. But what about the many people who lead secular lives and are also hungry for meaning? What guides, what approaches are available to them? Distinguished philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly explain that a secular life charged with meaning is indeed within reach.
-
-
Excellent Book that refreshes the classics
- By Tod on 06-14-11
By: Hubert Dreyfus, and others
-
Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene
- The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bart Ehrman, author of the best sellers Misquoting Jesus and Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code, here takes listeners on another engaging tour of the early Christian church, illuminating the lives of three of Jesus' most intriguing followers: Simon Peter, Paul of Tarsus, and Mary Magdalene.
-
-
A re-write of "Misquoting Jesus"
- By Miguel on 09-09-08
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
Misquoting Jesus
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today.
-
-
Understanding Manuscripts
- By KaHef on 11-22-06
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot
- A New Look at the Betrayer and Betrayed
- By: Bart D. Ehrman
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lost for nearly 1,700 years, newly restored and authenticated, the Gospel of Judas presents a very different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. Rather than paint Judas as a traitor, it portrays him as acting at Jesus' request.
-
-
Not Another One!
- By David on 04-12-07
By: Bart D. Ehrman
-
God and Empire
- Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now
- By: John Dominic Crossan
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In contrast to the oppressive Roman military occupation of the first century, Crossan examines the meaning of the non-violent Kingdom of God prophesized by Jesus and the equality advocated by Paul to the early Christian churches. Crossan contrasts these messages of peace with the misinterpreted apocalyptic vision from the Book of Revelation, which has been misrepresented by modern right-wing theologians and televangelists to justify US military actions in the Middle East.
-
-
Smart Book
- By Wesley Bishop on 07-01-22
-
Origin Story
- A Big History of Everything
- By: David Christian
- Narrated by: Jamie Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day - and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History", the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
-
-
A brilliant achievement, must read/listen
- By 11104 on 09-05-18
By: David Christian
What listeners say about The Evolution of God
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E. Atkinson
- 12-08-11
Started out excellent
This book started with an excellent anthropological view of the gradual change of gods over time. Then it became a book on Game theory, and a very round about justification with LOTS of hand waiving explanations on why it is okay to still maintain your current religion. It stopped being about evolution of the idea of gods and became why it is okay to keep the same traditional religion. After the countless time some game theory term was mentioned within a five minute segment, I simply stopped listening. Perhaps it gets back on track, in the third segment, and perhaps some day I will start with the third segment and check. Not likely though.
Enjoy the beginning.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tim
- 05-05-14
Myth of God
Robert Wright's theories in "The Evolution of God" is interesting, but also a tough subject to tackle. As I become older, I'm becoming more of an atheist. It's not so much I'm not a believer, but I have my doubt there is a God. The book is broken up into three main religions.Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Wright writes how God evolved overtime through different religions. He does not dismiss a God, but he explains the non zero sum. This was just a hard book to tackle because I'm not so religious that I think that God was my designer, but I also think that God was a myth from our ancestors and their stories got embellished overtime through religions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- FjHarty
- 12-13-11
Could have been less about Islam
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
While the book does a fair job of trying to develop a coherent story of the evolution of god or God, it dwells way too much on Islam and how we (not of the Islamic faith) can better get along with them. The author wants us to understand not only the evolution of Islam but to buy into his theory of why they (some) are terrorists, why they do what they do and how we can appease them, and thus move society forward. And while I may buy into this notion it really deserves to be in another book with a different title (“Why Islam Will Always Be In A Non-Zero Sum Game With The World”).
Over all the book seemed very well researched and I especially liked where the author took the trouble to rebut some of his own arguments, toward the end of the book. I was just disappointed that the author tried to include is justification of Islam and Muslim’s in a book that purported to be about the evolution of God.
I also agree with one of the reviewers that the narrator sounded like he fell asleep a couple of times. AND I know he knows how to pronounce the word specific but in a couple of instances it came out Pacific.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David Constant
- 06-18-21
Great book; boring reader
The book itself is wonderful {I have read it several times, bought the audio to share with my wife}. However, the reader reads it like a lecture, very drily, instead of as a fascinating narrative. Wright is a very skillful writer, who varies the pace, colour and idiom of his writing, often injecting sly humour. All of these are lost in the reading performance. The reader's voice doesn't even vary enough to make it clear where a quotation ends and the regular text begins again. There were 3 minutes where the text varied between snippets of quotation and the author's voice. I was lost.
It's too easy for your attention to wander in this reading, and you can't afford that with this kind of writing, you'll get lost quickly. It's possible to read this so that you're attention won't even think of wandering because it's so interesting. This wasn't that reading.
I seem to recall the same reader doing one of Michael Pollan's books, again in marked contrast to the colorful way in which the author himself reads his other books.
If you're at all a reader, buy the book, you'll get so much more out of it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Stephen
- 08-07-09
Very heavy reading
The book is the author's theories on how man develped the concept of god(s). It is a very ambitious undertaking and he begins with when 'man' first walked the earth. His approach is scholarly but due to the nature of his topic, he presents portions of his research , study and experiences to try and describe how the concept of god evolved. Unfortunately, although I take his findings at face value, their interpretation is his. He picks and chooses anecdotes from different 'primitive' tribes to makes his case on how god 'evolved'. As a scientist, this is a frustrating approach as he appears to select 'random' facts he has found into a theory. He provides no rationale on how he chose which findings to include and which he did not include. Data is not the plural of anecdote. The presentation is also extremely detailed in parts and it easy to lost in the narrative. He also uses primitive words and names, which I could not even venture a guess on how they are spelled. On one level, the use of primitive vocabularies is interesting but it also makes it hard to follow. The depth of his discussions required my full, undivided attention. This made it very difficult to listen to while driving, and required that I regularly rewind sections. I am not a theolgian or particularly well versed in the history of religions and found this a very difficult book to get through. I confess that I only listened to the first of 3, 4 hour segments and gave up.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
50 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Henry
- 08-16-10
If God is just god, where does that leave me?
This book is not for the casual reader of religious propaganda. Nor, in my opinion, is it for someone who staunchly believes the Torah, Bible, or Koran to be literally true. On the other hand, if one is prepared to listen with an open mind the author has much to intellectually stimulate you. Or to put it differently, if you are willing to concede that your Sunday school teacher didn't exactly tell you the whole story, and even if the theory of evolution appeals to your intellect a lot more than Intelligent Design, you may still not prepared to believe that we are just a fortunate accident of electro-chemical actions in a primordial soup. If so, Robert Wright wrote this book for you.
He begins as other have by systematically destroying the credibility of all 3 Abrahamic religions as the inspired word of a creator God. He details, as others have, the human editing of the message to fit the political and economic needs of the era in which the text was written. Then when other authors end their book with the demotion of God to god --as if no more needed to be said -- he begins a cautious, although compellingly plausible, case for seeing the finger prints of a designer in the development of mankind. Personally, I don't need a teddy bear god to help me sleep at night, but if you are like some of my very intelligent and scientifically literate friends who are just not emotionally prepared to believe that there is no purpose whatsoever in our existence or in the creation of the universe then I highly recommend that you listen to Robert Wright's The Evolution of God. The narration was professional and moved along without delay.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
26 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Don
- 08-12-09
Food for the mind!
I listened to this book twice and found new details with each listening that deepen my appreciation for this important work. Give it a try!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- K. Cunningham
- 12-06-12
Non-zero Sum: Deus (and while I’m at it, Non-Zero)
I’m probably more of a splitter than a lumper at heart, but even a died-in-the-wool splitter would probably find it difficult to read Robert Wright’s new book, The Evolution of God, without thinking often of his prior book, Non-Zero. In fact, it would be fair, I think, to call EoG a sequel... something like, Non-Zero Sum: Deus.
Okay, if that little play on words doesn’t get you rolling on the floor, it’s perhaps because you hadn’t taken on board that the sequel is about god -- you know, deus. Ok, that done...
This will be a short review, because there are plenty of longer ones, including those by illustrious scientists like Paul Bloom. Also, this book’s a couple years old, so probably no one really cares anymore.
But I never wrote a review of Non-Zero, and if I could persuade you to do that, I would consider it a job well-done. Then I would say, So, take the primary ideas in non-zero, imagine that religions tend to follow the growth of non-zero relationships through into greater civility, and there you have EoG.
So, there you have EoG.
He adds a bit of stuff I don’t so much like, more about which in a few paragraphs.
Non-zero is the more academic version of win-win. An exchange is a non-zero sum exchange both parties benefit. I have something you want, you have something I want. We exchange and there is a non-zero sum outcomes. Humans, being more or less rational creatures, tend to like non-zero sum outcomes and the parties who participate in them with us. So, we don’t war with or kill those folks. Wright’s famous quip is that the reason he doesn’t want to kill the Japanese is that they make his mini-van.
The upshot of non-zero summing is that the more people one does business with on a global level, the fewer people there are whom one wants or is willing to kill or even badly exploit. It’s an argument that global commerce results in fewer wars and less bad feeling among people of different nations. That’s not an idea that many in the developed intellectual West find intuitively easy to digest, but there seems to be a good deal of evidence to support the claim, and that evidence is summed up very nicely in Steven Pinker’s book, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
So, when we do business with another nation (in a non-zero sum way), we are not likely to go to war with them.
How transactions get to be non-zero sum transactions can vary. Often in the course of history, transactions began as zero (I win, you lose) or negative (lose-lose) sum. Think of slaverly (zero or negative), empire (zero), etc. But, over time, as oppressed people fight back, as resources dwindle, relationships may change such that the zero’s are no longer possible (oppressors can’t get away with it, it becomes to expensive to maintain empires) and non-zero relationships evolve.
So, non-zero sum transactions were a rather late development in human history, coming into grand fashion only in the last several thousand years. When they did arise, they spread rather quickly.
That’s non-zero sum. The Evolution of God is basically this: as non-zero sum relationships grew more common throughout the middle east, the homeland of the Abrahamic religions, the religions mellowed and grew more tolerant. As Jew traded with Gentile, with Christian, etc, the religions themselves become less marshall.
What I like and agree with: cultures and circumstances cause religions to adapt. Externalities alter religious morés, not vice versa.
What I don’t like: Wright spends a good deal of time mumbling about a direction of history toward more enlightened moral/ ethical relationships (more non-zero sum), which he claims supports the idea that there is some underlying moral order to the world, and that this moral order could be some fuzzy version of god.
Whatever, didn’t need that bit and it does no good. It seems a pretty heavy-handed tactic to get the religious to buy into non-zero sum and the idea of an evolving morality. But, I don’t think EoG will be read by too many people who would entertain that idea. It weakens (and lengthens by a good deal) the important argument of the book.
Also, I think you can read a two-pager on Fiske’s relational models theory (RMT) and come away with a somewhat more complete understanding of how economic models of relationships inform morality. But, together, RMT and NZS explain a lot about the directionality of morality social relationships.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Chi-Hung
- 02-22-10
Overall well researched and well argued book
This is another one of anti-religious manifesto. However for what it worth, it is overall well researched and well argued book, my only problem with the book has been that the book tries to cover too much, I'd prefer a narrower subject matter and deeper research.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- ajowett
- 06-11-17
Challenge your faith
For anyone who wants to truly wrestle with their beliefs.
Robert Wright does a great job of deconstructing today's Abrahamic religions in a way that dismisses closely held religious beliefs with solid historical context.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!