Readers' Favorite 2017 International Book Awards Winner and Beverly Hills 2017 Book Awards Winner in Philosophy category. What is the unique and most important feature that distinguishes man from all other living beings? Why is it that, contrary to the instinct of self-preservation, a parent will throw themselves headlong into fire or water to save their child? Why do people get married and why do they get divorced? Why do people have extra-marital affairs and why do two people in a couple become jealous of one another? What is Love? When and why did the type of sex emerge among human beings that is free of any reproductive function? Why are the social and behavioural distinctions between men and women being rapidly erased? Why, despite everything, is the world becoming more tolerant than it was in previous centuries? People are born with different intellectual, spiritual and physical capabilities. So why do we assert that all people are equal? Can the world without violence exist? If not, under what circumstances and to what kind of violence does man have a right? Wherein lies the origin of this right? Where is the root of our morality? Why do our moral values change over time? Do absolute moral values exist? Why has Man, on the whole, never observed (or perhaps is incapable of observing) a set of various religious commandments? Should we observe them? Are they the decree of God? By which "commandments" do we really live our lives and is it possible to formulate them in such a way that we could realistically observe them? What is Good? And what is Evil? Is there a simple criterion by which one may distinguish Good from Evil? In which direction is humanity evolving and is it governed by some universal law? Is there any meaning to life? Is it possible to give a clear and straightforward answer to all these questions? It is, in fact, possible!

Radical understanding of ourselves is now possible to our very core--greater insight into whom we really are, where we came from, what our evolution has been, what it has meant, and what it means now and for the future. That quest has been an intellectual one, but it also has been a spiritual one--and answers with spiritual meaning are now possible, even for the atheists, doubters, skeptics, humanists, and freethinkers.

In this study, author Douglas Falknor explores the issue of how religion has evolved along with humanity. A nonbeliever, Falknor seeks to answer a host of age-old questions: Are we born addicted to religion? Why do we have religion? Is there a God? How has religion evolved and created the hardwired spirituality within us?

Falknor goes beyond the God gene and surveys recent thought and reveals original interpretations of what it all means. He traces this spiritual quest for nonbelievers and calls this the "Path of the Doubtful Sojourner." Through this discussion, Falknor seeks to pave the way toward greater spiritual and psychological fulfillment.

As soon as man becomes conscious of his existence, as soon as he was able to reason, he was bound to ask himself the questions: "From whence did I come? And "Whither do I go?" It was very natural that he should wonder how he came to be here on earth and what would become of him after death. He saw his fellow man fall asleep, never to awaken. He saw others killed, life extinguished. It was his efforts to solve these problems that caused primitive man to create beliefs in life after death and in the power of super-human beings. When we look back over the experiences of the race, the history of mankind, we find that man has found three different ways of explaining his activities. In other words, there have been but three conceptions of history, three basic explanations by man of his doings on this planet. It is true that more than three names have been given to these conceptions of history, but they will all fall within the following: First, in order of time, is the Theological Conception of History; Second, is the Idealist Conception of History, and, third, is the Materialist Conception of History.