The serpent's promise

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John C. Wathey

An essential feature of religious experience across many cultures is the intuitive feeling of God's presence. More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion. Biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey, a veteran neuroscientist, argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy.

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Max Jammer

"The philosophy of religion and the quest for spiritual truth preoccupied Albert Einstein - so much that it has been said "one might suspect he was a disguised theologian." Nevertheless, the literature on the life and work of Einstein, extensive as it is, does not provide an adequate account of his religious conception and sentiments. Only fragmentarily known, Einstein's ideas about religion have been often distorted both by atheists and by religious groups eager to claim him as one of their own. But what exactly was Einstein's religious credo? In this book, the distinguished physicist and philosopher Max Jammer offers an unbiased and well-documented answer to this question."--BOOK JACKET.

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John Polkinghorne

"In this captivating book, one of the most highly regarded scientists-theologians of our time explores aspects of the interaction of science and theology. John Polkinghorne defends the place of theology in the university and discusses the role of revelation in religion.". "The author examines two related concepts in depth. The first is the divine self-limitation involved in creation that leads to an important reappraisal of the traditional claim that God does not act as a cause among causes. The other is the nature of time and God's involvement with it, an issue that Polkinghorne shows can link metascience and theological understandings. In the final section of the book, the author reviews three centuries of the science and theology debate and assesses the work of major contemporary contributors to the discussion: Wolfhart Pannenberg, Thomas Torrance, and Paul Davies. He also considers why the science-theology discussion has for several centuries been a particular preoccupation of the English."--BOOK JACKET.

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Neil Broom

This text demonstrates that modern materialistic science remains powerless to explain the phenomenon of life itself. It shows how the qualities of purpose, intentionality and mind, suffuse almost every aspect of the living realm, yet these same qualities remain unaccounted for by science itself.