Peter Steinfels reviews Robert Wright‘s The Evolution of God
There are, it seems, two Robert Wrights — a tough-minded Robert Wright and a tender-minded Robert Wright — who have collaborated on a book about religion. The tough-minded Wright, like the much acclaimed “new atheists,” insists that widely held traditional beliefs cannot withstand scientific scrutiny; they are the evolutionary outcome of material forces. The tender-minded Wright exudes a positive view of the entire religious enterprise nonetheless: Religion has a natural capacity to overcome the vaunted clash of faith-based civilizations and the clash between faith and modern reason. Concepts of God have evolved from amoral, violence-prone tribal deities to a “morally modern God” who espouses altruism across ethnic and religious boundaries. In this sense, Wright argues, “religion hasn’t just evolved; it has matured.”
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There are, it seems, two Robert Wrights — a tough-minded Robert Wright and a tender-minded Robert Wright — who have collaborated on a book about religion. The tough-minded Wright, like the much acclaimed “new atheists,” insists that widely held traditional beliefs cannot withstand scientific scrutiny; they are the evolutionary outcome of material forces. The tender-minded Wright exudes a positive view of the entire religious enterprise nonetheless: Religion has a natural capacity to overcome the vaunted clash of faith-based civilizations and the clash between faith and modern reason. Concepts of God have evolved from amoral, violence-prone tribal deities to a “morally modern God” who espouses altruism across ethnic and religious boundaries. In this sense, Wright argues, “religion hasn’t just evolved; it has matured.”
