The Bible is the bestselling book of all time. It has been
venerated -or excoriated,as God's word, but so far no one has read
the Bible for what it is: humanity's diary, chronicling our
ancestors' valiant attempts to cope with the trials and
tribulations of life on Earth.In The Good Book of Human Nature ,
evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai
Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution. The
Bible, they argue, was written to make sense of the single greatest
change in history: the transition from egalitarian hunter-gatherer
to agricultural societies. Religion arose as a strategy to cope
with the unprecedented levels of epidemic disease, violence,
inequality, and injustice that confronted us when we abandoned the
bush,and which still confront us today.Armed with the latest
findings from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, archeology,
and religious history, van Schaik and Michel take us on a journey
through the Book of Books, from the Garden of Eden all the way to
Golgotha. The Book of Genesis, they reveal, marked the emergence of
private property,one can no longer take the fruit off any tree, as
one could before agriculture. The Torah as a whole is the product
of a surprisingly logical, even scientific, approach to society's
problems. This ground-breaking perspective allows van Schaik and
Michel to coax unexpected secrets from the familiar stories of Adam
and Eve, Cain and Able, Abraham and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth and
Mary. The Bible may have a dark side, but in van Schaik and
Michel's hands, it proves to be a hallmark of human
indefatigability.Provocative and deeply original, The Good Book of
Human Nature offers a radically new understanding of the Bible. It
shows that the Bible is more than just a pillar for religious
belief: it is a pioneering attempt at scientific inquiry.
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