Evolving Brains Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion: By E. F. Torrey. (2017). New York: Columbia University Press, 291 pp., $20.

Introduction

I came to this book while searching for answers. The question that preoccupied me had to do with the relationship between losing a loved one and the turn to spirituality to seek comfort. Living in a retirement community, where death is a common occurrence, I wondered what evolutionary function grief and mourning serve? More of that later.

First, I will outline the main themes of this work. In this review, I will omit some of the detailed descriptions that the author provides of the brain changes that occurred during evolution that accompanied cognitive development.

The author poses the question: What can evolution tell us about how we evolved to believe in the existence of gods and an afterlife. To answer this question, the author takes us on an anthropological journey by weaving together three themes: the evolution of hominids; the evolutionary stages in cognitive development; and the associated changes in brain development that accompanied each cognitive landmark. His thesis is that the path taken by brain development from fetal through later life parallels the evolutionary path taken by the brains of hominids. In other words, fetal and later brain development can be used as a map to help reconstruct the evolution of the cognitive development of hominids, including Homo Sapiens. Tracing this path during evolution allows us to speculate on the related evolution of beliefs in the existence of gods and the afterlife. The author proposes the following Timeline:

The Stone Age